Physicians Practice - June 2008 - (Page 21) SAVING MONEY IN OREGON Cuts in Medicaid spending are the equivalent of tax increases on hospitals, a cost borne ultimately by beneficiaries of private insurance and by taxpayers via Medicare. That’s the only conclusion one can draw from a study published recently by the Annals of Emergency Medicine, which examined the effect of Medicaid cuts in Oregon in 2003, when the state cut its Medicaid enrollment by 15 percent, increasing its uninsured ranks by 52,000. The result was “a 20-percent increase in the number of uninsured patients visiting the emergency department,” said study author Robert A. Lowe, MD, director of the Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University. Hospital admissions of uninsured patients increased by nearly 50 percent during the same period, and admissions of uninsured psychiatric patients doubled. Overall, uncompensated care for Oregon hospitals rose from $256 million the year before the cuts to $509 million the year after. So Oregon’s efforts to save money by reducing Medicaid enrollment end up costing $253 million. The hospitals bear the initial brunt, then cover their costs by increasing the cost of care for everyone else. Nice job, Oregon. http://www.sagehealth.com/PP http://www.sagehealth.com/PP
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