PORT ANGELES — The more than $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts included in the budget bill President Donald Trump signed on July 4 will be felt by everyone, not just those enrolled in the program, Olympic Medical Center CEO Darryl Wolfe told hospital commissioners.
“What people need to understand is that this isn’t just about Medicaid patients or our friends and neighbors who are on Medicaid, this is about a system that has the lowest bed count in the whole United States per capita,” Wolfe said Wednesday. “Cuts to healthcare in our state have an impact on an ecosystem where we rely on each other to have capacity.”
According to KFF, a nonprofit health policy organization, Washington has the lowest in-patient bed capacity in the country, with 1.57 beds per 1,000 residents. The national average is 2.32 beds per 1,000 residents.
OMC depends on the capacity of other systems because it transfers about 1,500 patients a year that it is unable to treat locally.
People will not stop seeking care just because they lose their Medicaid coverage or can no longer afford Apple Health, the state’s Medicaid program, Wolfe said. OMC will continue to treat them regardless of their ability to pay, he added.
“That’s our job, and that’s what we will continue to do, but we expect there to be an increase in our uncompensated care,” he said.
When the state expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act in 2014, Wolfe said the number of uninsured patients at OMC decreased. Although Medicaid does not reimburse hospitals for the entire cost of delivering care, he said, “it’s better to get 60 cents on the dollar than 20 cents on the dollar, which is what we estimated for those who aren’t able to pay.”
In June, for example, OMC had $378,314 in bad debt — the cost of services it delivered but for which it did not receive payment.
Wolfe said some of the budget bill’s provisions, like a work requirement (when most on Medicaid are already employed) and stipulating that individuals must renew their coverage every six months will create costly administrative oversight at the state level to verify compliance, discourage people from enrolling and put additional financial pressure on OMC.
It is estimated that about 17 million people across the country will lose their Medicaid coverage, he said.
The $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program Congress established is not nearly sufficient to offset the cuts to Medicaid, Wolfe said.
OMC is not the only local healthcare provider that will be severely impacted by the cuts. Peninsula Behavioral Health and the North Olympic Healthcare Network also serve a high number of patients enrolled in the program.
“We have to remember that this is a cut to the system at large and it impacts everyone,” Wolfe said. “It means longer wait times in the ER, it means it will be harder to get a primary care doctor, harder to hire the physicians that we really need.”
$1 million donation
In his presentation to the board, Bruce Skinner, the Olympic Medical Center Foundation’s executive director, said the organization is pledging a combined $1 million to the hospital’s residency program, pediatrics clinic, cancer center and residency scholarship program.
The pediatrics clinic also will receive a three-year, $800,000 grant the foundation secured, Skinner said.
Foundation board president Dr. Mark Fischer said the $150,000 it is donating toward residency scholarships that support participants in the rural program established to increase the number of physicians in the area. There have been 14 OMC residency graduates since the program began in 2019, and six of them have remained in the community.
Partnership
OMC’s exploration of an alignment with another healthcare system was not on Wednesday’s agenda, and commissioners did not discuss it.
Hospital commissioners are in the decision phase of the process. The next step will be negotiating a letter of intent with one of the 10 healthcare systems that signed non-disclosure agreements in order to submit a proposal. Remaining independent also is an option.
Jefferson Healthcare, which was one of 10 initial potential partners, is no longer under consideration, according to a June 18 letter from commissioners Marie Dressler, Kees Kolff, Bruce McComas and Jill Rienstra addressed to the East Jefferson community.
In it, they said public statements made by Commissioner Matt Ready about a potential alliance with OMC and public disclosure of its proposal and discussions with OMC “may have contributed to this lost opportunity.”
Commissioners also said Ready violated executive session confidentiality laws and rejected his claims that actions of the board and Jefferson Healthcare CEO Mike Glenn were not in compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
