By Katie Curley
Staff writer
August 23, 2008 03:59 am NEWBURYPORT — Anna Jaques Hospital will receive an extra $250,000 from the government as payment for seeing Medicare and Medicaid patients due to adjustments to the budget made by the governor's office in an effort to boost community hospitals. Hospital CEO Delia O'Connor said the help comes at a crucial time when smaller hospitals are trying to keep their heads above water while battling rising costs. "As part of the budget process ending on Beacon Hill, we will see a nice uptick of payments to us for seeing Medicaid patients," hospital CEO Delia O'Connor said. "It's welcome and comes at a difficult period for all community hospitals trying to make ends meet and operate in the black." Anna Jaques will use the extra money to put toward capital expenses, such as replacing older beds and buying more vital-sign monitors to make the jobs of doctors and nurses easier. "If we can have a year in which we can operate in the black financially and avoid having to reduce our labor force, it will provide us a little bit of a cushion," O'Connor said. "In a $100 million budget, $250,000 is not the answer to every question, but it helps when we are scraping for every nickel and trying to support patients and provide the best care available." Gov. Deval Patrick vetoed a number of other line items in the budget to try to free up more Medicaid reimbursements to community hospitals, O'Connor said. On average, the hospital spends roughly $400,000 of their $100 million budget on Medicare and Medicaid patients. After budgeting $133,000 for Medicaid reimbursements this year, the additional increase comes as a nice surprise. "To get that amount is unexpected but nice given how hard we work to control costs and overtime costs," O'Connor said. "Every extra amount of money is a battle. Suddenly to have a quarter of a million dollars come to us is a terrific help." The funds come as an indirect result of the success of the state's efforts to get more residents insured. Since the health care bill was signed into law by then-Gov. Mitt Romney in June 2006, 439,000 more people have enrolled in health insurance, according to the report from the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy released Tuesday. Before 2006, studies had estimated that about 600,000 Massachusetts residents lacked health insurance. The dramatic expansion has led to a drop in patients seeking routine care in hospital emergency rooms and the reduction is already saving the state millions of dollars, the quarterly report said. The state had requested more than $11 billion in federal support during the next three years to pay for dozens of health care programs, including its universal health coverage system. As part of funding these programs, lawmakers had to reach an agreement with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services this week and in turn decide which programs would and would not be funded in the state's budget. "As a policy decision, Patrick and Secretary of Health and Human Services Judy Bigby have been very supportive of community hospitals," O'Connor said. "In looking at Medicare in the budget and vetoing several items in the budget, which would have created special payments and taken away the Medicaid money, he freed it up and is now able to spread it around to more community hospitals."
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