Governor Rick Scott is still going after hospitals. Of Pensacola’s three hospitals, West Florida Hospital is the only one that will benefit from his proposed plan to replace Low Income Pool (LIP) funds. West Florida is part of HCA, the for-profit health care system that Scott once led.
Yesterday, Scott announced the kick off of the Commission on Healthcare and Hospital Funding’s Spotlight Transparency Tour. Following the Commission’s meeting next week in Tallahassee, the tour will start in Tampa, followed by stops in Jacksonville and Miami to compare the hospitals in those regions
He said the goal would be to compare the hospitals in those regions and how to make them more transparent and efficient for the taxpayers that support them. During each stop on the tour, the Commission will invite the lowest and highest performing hospitals to present detailed information on their costs, profits and patient outcomes that all affect the level of taxpayer support to each institution.
The Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) released a chart which outlines a breakdown of hospital profits and potential changes in revenue under AHCA’s proposed changes submitted to CMS on new LIP funding and Medicaid rates.
AHCA did not point out in its chart which hospitals are for-profit and non-profit. For a non-profit hospitals, the “profits†are reinvested in the health care system. The for-profits hand out dividends to their investors.
Under the AHCA proposed plan, Sacred Heart would lose $1,329,435, Baptist $600,547 and Santa Rosa Medical Center $531,077. The winner is West Florida Hospital that will receive $3,628,818. West Florida Hospital did not receive any LIP funds under the current program.
ACHA released this past February a Navigant Consulting study of Medicaid funding and payments in the state. The study showed that Escambia County hospitals provide $41.8 million of uncompensated care annually—Sacred Heart $22.1 million, Baptist $14.8 million and West Florida $4.9 million.
Therefore, under Scott’s proposal, the local hospital that does the least for the poor and uninsured will be the one that benefits the most.
Spotlight Transparency Tour Schedule:
June 4, 2015: Tallahassee
Cabinet Meeting Room
Florida State Capitol Building
June 17, 2015: Spotlight Transparency Tour in Tampa
Specific location and time TBD
Week of June 29: Spotlight Transparency Tour in Jacksonville
Specific location and time TBD
Week of July 13: Spotlight Transparency Tour in Miami
Specific location and time TBD