Earlier this week, I joined hospital leaders from across the state for North Carolina’s second Hospital Advocacy Day at the North Carolina Legislative Building. Each of us met with our local legislators to share challenges that hospitals are facing, specifically, the impact of current state legislative proposals on our hospitals.
Current proposals could affect hospital tax exemptions which enable many of us to provide continued community benefits. Many of our hospitals, including Duke Raleigh, earn our tax-exemptions daily through charity care and other community programs. We treat anyone who comes to our hospital regardless of their ability to pay. Because of the state’s decision not to expand Medicaid, many of the uninsured will continue to rely on our hospitals and emergency departments for care – and we will continue to incur losses from these patients.
We also discussed the importance of preserving hospital payment rates to minimize hospital losses on Medicaid and to preserve the hospital assessment program which offsets a portion of hospital losses from caring for Medicaid patients. Medicaid is currently paying hospitals less than they spend caring for Medicaid patients. In fact, hospitals are currently spending more on care for hospital services for Medicaid patients than the State does.
I was impressed and encouraged with the candid dialogue that I had with House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate President Pro Tem Berger.
The Speaker’s willingness to engage in a thoughtful and extremely informed discussion on the very tough issues facing hospitals was a display of real leadership.
At Duke Raleigh Hospital, we are proud to be able to offer the latest advancements in care and treatment options to patients. Our government’s decisions will profoundly affect the way our hospital and others will be able to deliver care to our communities. We are committed to fulfilling our promise to deliver the very best care to our community.
If you are interested in learning more about these issues and the impact they have on our state’s hospitals, visit www.healthyhospitalsnc.org.
References: www.healthyhosptialsnc.org, www.ncha.org
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