Analysis: Reform can save SACH $1M; hospital CEO said report misleading

by justin strawser (staff writer justin_s@newsitem.com)
Published: March 17, 2010

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COAL TOWNSHIP - A new analysis by the Health Care for America Now (HCAN) reported this week that President Barack Obama's health insurance reform bill would save Shamokin Area Community Hospital (SACH) $1 million a year, but the president of the hospital says the information is misleading.

According to the report provided by statewide organizer Antoinette Kraus of Pennsylvania Health Access Network Tuesday, SACH provided $2 million in care to patients who couldn't afford payments last year.

In fact, hospitals in the district of U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, D-10, who has been thrust into the middle of the debate,

have provided approximately $62.1 million in uncompensated care every year.

"It's no wonder that hospitals in rural communities are struggling to keep afloat," Mare Stier, state director of HCAN, is quoted in the report. "There's no business in the world that could survive if it gave away nearly 8 percent of what it sold like these hospitals do."

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that the health insurance reform bill will cut the number of uninsured people in parts of the northeast by approximately half, which would save SACH $1 million, according to the report.

While Tom Harlow, president and CEO of SACH, acknowledges this would provide reimbursement for those who previously were unable to pay, he said there's more to the story.

The health care reform bill "would be funded by tax increases and reduction in the Medicare reimbursement," he said. "That's less money coming in our doors."

Over the next 10 years, according to a report from The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, there would be at least $12 million less for SACH due to reduced Medicare reimbursement.

It would be akin to "taking money out of one pocket and putting it another," said Harlow. "I don't know how fiscally responsible that is."

While Harlow is in favor of health care reform, he said he doesn't support the current legislation. He wonders if the current price tag is even affordable or if the right people are at the table making decisions.

"I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone in the health care system not in favor of reform, but I don't think what is being proposed is the right way," he said.

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