Einstein Joins Area Hospitals Urging Congress to Maintain Medicare Funding for Most Vulnerable Citizens
Philadelphia, PA (March 6, 2007) - Representatives of Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, Mercy Health System, The Chester County Hospital and Thomas Jefferson
University Hospital today visited the nation’s capital to urge southeastern Pennsylvania Congressional members to fight the
President’s proposed Medicare cuts, totaling $26 billion over five years.
Preliminary estimates place the Medicare cuts to southeastern Pennsylvania at approximately $722 million, with $100 million
of these during federal fiscal year 2008. The President also proposes cuts to Medicaid funding for graduate medical education,
amounting to a reduction of $60 million in combined federal and state funds to southeastern Pennsylvania hospitals in fiscal
year 2007.
“The cuts proposed in the President’s budget place an unacceptable burden on Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable citizens,” Bill Ryan, Director of Government Grants and Contracts for Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, told Representatives Robert A. Brady,
Chaka Fattah, and Jim W. Gerlach during a Capitol Hill advocacy day meeting sponsored by the American Hospital Association,
The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) and Delaware Valley Healthcare Council of HAP. “These cuts are
a direct threat to the integrity of Pennsylvania’s health care delivery system, and they threaten to reduce every patient’s
access to essential hospital care.”
All six representatives from southeastern Pennsylvania – U.S. Representatives Robert A. Brady, Chaka Fattah, Jim W. Gerlach,
Patrick J. Murphy, Joe Sestak and Allyson Y. Schwartz – have signed a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the House
Budget Committee. “Federal payments are not keeping pace with the costs of responding to these challenges,” wrote the Representatives.
“Medicare payments are falling further and further below the minimal costs of care for our seniors. MedPAC [Medicare Payment
Advisory Committee] estimates Medicare hospital operating margins of negative 3.1 percent in 2005 and projects that those
margins will fall to negative 5.4 percent in 2007, the lowest Medicare margins recorded. This trend is simply unsustainable.”
The federal Medicare budget proposal cuts critical funding for hospital inpatient and outpatient care, inpatient rehabilitation
services, hospital-based skilled nursing units, and hospital-based home health agency services. The President’s plan also
proposes to drastically reduce Medicare and Medicaid payments for medical education, which is essential for the continued
viability of the health care system in the region, state and nation.
The proposed federal cuts are in addition to the $80 million in cuts to Medical Assistance (MA)/Medicaid payments for southeastern
Pennsylvania hospitals proposed by the Governor. Currently, MA/Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals are substantially lower
than the actual costs of care provided—approximately 82 percent of inpatient costs and 53 percent of outpatient costs.
About Albert Einstein Healthcare Network
Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, a member of the Jefferson Health System, provides healthcare services through Albert Einstein
Medical Center, Germantown Community Health Services, Willow Terrace (a nursing home), Einstein at Elkins Park, MossRehab,
Willowcrest (a center for subacute care), Belmont Behavioral Health and a number of outpatient and satellite locations. Einstein
also operates a primary care network, Einstein Neighborhood Healthcare. For more information, visit www.einstein.edu or call
1-800-EINSTEIN.
CONTACT: Alexis Moore
Communications Director
Albert Einstein Healthcare Network
215-456-6734
mooreal@einstein.edu
Publish date: March 6, 2007
