PORT ANGELES – Olympic Medical Center’s fees will rise nearly 8 percent in 2008, hospital officials said Wednesday during a hearing on next year’s budget.
That was the good news.
CEO Eric Lewis said OMC also may ask voters to raise its levy rate. Although several hospital commissioners have sent similar signals, Wednesday was the first time administrators uttered the T-word.
The issue probably would appear in next November’s election.
OMC ranks last among Washington’s 43 public hospital districts with a levy of less than 15 cents per $1,000 of assessed value of real property.
Thanks to the 7.8 percent fee hike, Medicare patients’ co-pays – which are a percentage of the hospital’s total bill – probably will rise proportionately with the increases.
Patients covered by private insurance may notice no immediate change.
That’s because insurance companies negotiate their own fee schedules with OMC.
Those rates cannot rise until the insurer/hospital contracts are due for re-negotiation, said Kari Justad, account manager with Premera Blue Cross of Mountlake Terrace.
