“Improving our nation’s health care system is one of the most difficult and complex challenges facing our country right now, but simply striking a red marker through important healthcare programs is the wrong approach,” said Rehberg, a member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

          The Administration’s proposed budget calls for a $182 billion Medicare reduction, and a $17 billion Medicaid reduction, over the next five years.  The bulk of that reduction ($135 billion) would be from hospital programs funded by Medicare.  Hardest hit would be Medicare’s hospital reimbursement for inpatient and outpatient care, costing Montana’s hospitals a total of $143.5 million over the next five years.  In all, Montana hospitals could lose more than $190 million in Medicare and Medicaid funding over the five year period.

          “The Montana Hospital Association is very concerned about the impact these payment reductions would have on the state’s healthcare safety net,” said John Flink, Vice President of Government Affairs for the Montana Hospital Association.  “We’re very pleased that Congressman Rehberg is working to see that these reductions are not enacted.”

          Rehberg sent a letter to Budget Committee Chairman Rep. John Spratt, (D-SC), and Ranking Member Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) asking the committee to reject the proposed Medicare and Medicaid spending cuts for hospital services.        

          “Whether it be hospitals, home health agencies, or nursing homes, these cuts would destroy the backbone of Montana’s healthcare system,” said Rehberg,  “The proposed reductions are unreasonable and inappropriate, particularly at a time when these hospitals are facing an increasing demand for healthcare, rising costs, and a health profession labor shortage.”

Letter:

Dear Chairman Spratt and Ranking Member Ryan:

We are writing to urge the Committee to demonstrate its commitment to Medicare and Medicaid, and the seniors, disabled and children who rely on these programs for their care, by opposing proposed cuts to hospital services in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 Budget Resolution. The nation’s full-service community hospitals are the health care safety net for millions of vulnerable people, but face many challenges in providing this care: soaring demand, rising numbers of uninsured, new and costly pharmaceuticals and technologies, labor shortages, staying ready to respond to community-threatening events, whether natural or man-made…to name just a few.

Despite these challenges, the administration on February 4^th released a budget for Fiscal Years 2009 – 2013 that proposes unprecedented cuts: $182 billion over the next five years to Medicare, and $17 billion to Medicaid…a total of nearly $200 billion in cuts to services that patients and communities rely on.  Under Medicare, hospital cuts alone would total a staggering $135 billion.

Among the many cuts included in the proposal: hospitals’ Medicare inpatient and outpatient inflation updates would be eliminated for the next three years, with updates lagging inflation every year thereafter; teaching hospitals would see their Indirect Medical Education (IME) adjustment cut from 5.5 percent to 2.2 percent over three years, a reduction of 60 percent; programs supporting hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of the poor and elderly would be slashed by 30 percent; and programs that are critical to America’s rural hospitals would be seriously eroded.

We hope you will reject these proposed cuts in Medicare and Medicaid spending for hospitals services.  We appreciate your consideration and look forward to working with you to achieve this goal.