Pennsylvania's budget restores funding for hospitals, nursing homes
Hospitals and nursing homes were happy to see millions in proposed cuts restored in the budget that Gov. Corbett signed Saturday.The $27.66 billion budget reversed Corbett's proposed 4 percent cut in Medical Assistance payments to the 600 nursing homes that accept the state and federal insurance for the poor, which is called Medicaid on the federal level. The restoration amounts to $46 million in state money, which translates into an additional $55 million in federal money, said Stuart Shapiro, president and chief executive of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, a trade group for nursing homes.
Hospitals and nursing homes were happy to see millions in proposed cuts restored in the budget that Gov. Corbett signed Saturday.
The $27.66 billion budget reversed Corbett's proposed 4 percent cut in Medical Assistance payments to the 600 nursing homes that accept the state and federal insurance for the poor, which is called Medicaid on the federal level.
The restoration amounts to $46 million in state money, which translates into an additional $55 million in federal money, said Stuart Shapiro, president and chief executive of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, a trade group for nursing homes.
But even with the level funding compared with the previous year, nursing homes will continue losing $20 per day on each resident, Shapiro said.
Lawmakers rejected numerous cuts proposed by Corbett that were aimed at newborn care, burn centers, trauma centers, and doctor training. In addition, the budget brought back $12.5 million in Medical Assistance for hospitals, including about $4 million in Southeastern Pennsylvania, said Curt Schroder, regional executive for the Delaware Valley Healthcare Council, a hospital trade group.
"In the end, we were very pleased with the restorations that passed in the budget," Schroder said.
The just-completed budget negotiations brought Temple University Health System $14.5 million of $17 million in Community Access funds that it had lost in the budget for the year ended Saturday, health system officials said. That money will be applied to the fiscal year that just ended, giving Temple a chance to break even.
The Philadelphia Corporation for Aging, which administers services for the elderly, is struggling with new regulations built into the budget, said Holly Lang, a PCA senior vice president.
Lang said PCA and other area agencies on aging were now required to take their elderly clients through a new enrollment process to get services at home.
The aging agencies will receive $65 for each enrollment, Lang said. A private company that enrolls Pennsylvanians in a similar program for people under 60 receives an average enrollment fee of $986, she said.
"It's the same exact service," she said.