How Will Hospitals Survive In Tomorrow’s Healthcare?

The 2020 budget proposal has a lot of people talking, and not in a good way. This is mainly because if this new budget proposal is passed, it would cut $2.7 trillion over the next decade from many important Health and Human Services programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. Learn how these proposed budget cuts may impact healthcare systems and patients if passed.

The 2020 Budget Proposal

The 2020 budget proposal includes the following actions:

• Cut at least $800 billion from the Health and Human Services program, Medicare over the next 10 years
• Require patients on Medicare to get prior approval for certain medical services
• Reduce spending on the Health and Human Services program, Medicaid by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years
• Eliminate extra Medicaid funding for states that expanded their programs under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
• Repeal federal subsidies for Obamacare
• Put a work requirement in place for low-income people who get their health insurance through Medicaid
• Convert all the Affordable Care Act’s funding into block grants
• Convert Medicaid into a per capita cap system, which means funding would be based on the state’s population, not on need
• Outlaw health insurance plans on the exchanges where customers do not have to pay any premiums
• Cut funding for global AIDS programs
• Slash funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by 10%
• Curb the rising price of prescription drugs
• Reduce funding for the National Institutes of Health by $4.5?billion, with the largest cut impacting the National Cancer Institute
• Increase funding for pediatric cancer research by $50?million

How The 2020 Budget Proposal Will Impact Hospitals And Healthcare Facilities

While curbing the rising price of prescription drugs and increasing funding for pediatric cancer research are both great aspects of this new proposal, the other cuts of the 2020 budget proposal still have many worried, especially healthcare systems.

Essentially, the budget proposal will drastically cut compensation for treating patients who can’t afford medical services for hospitals and other service providers, like teaching hospitals and outpatient departments.  

According to the Federation of American Hospitals, these “massive reductions would drastically reduce resources critical to care for low-income Americans and cripple efforts to stave off the looming physician shortage.”

The president of the Federation of American Hospitals, Chip Kahn stated the following in response to the 2020 budget proposal, “The impact on care for seniors would be devastating.”

How The 2020 Budget Proposal Will Impact Patients

Medicare is a critical program for senior citizens that, sadly, many of them spent their entire lives paying into. So, the fact that this new budget proposal wants to cut Medicare funding by $800 billion and make seniors jump through hoops to get prior approvals for the medical services they need, is such a disservice to this population. It’s going to make it a lot harder for seniors to get the care they need and, quite possibly, make their medical services more expensive, which will definitely add financial stress to to this population, many of which most live on a fixed income.

The impact to those on Medicaid will be detrimental as well and affect over 60 million people. Additionally, the work requirement for low-income people who get their health insurance through Medicaid will cause so many people to use their coverage. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 1.4 million to 4 million people could lose their Medicaid coverage if this budget proposal goes into effect.

It will also have a major negative impact on the disabled population, many of which rely on Medicaid. This includes family caregivers of parents or younger relatives with disabilities.

Find The Right Person Today!

The possibility of these drastic health care cuts makes optimizing your health system’s revenue cycle more important than ever. If you are struggling to find the right person to lead your revenue cycle management efforts, Nearterm can help. Give us a call at (281) 646-1330 or take our Interactive Survey.