I completed residency training at Boston Medical Center, so it saddens me to see they are going through difficult financial times.
BMC provides the majority of Medicaid care in Boston, and as such, are heavily dependent on the government to adequately reimburse for care to the poor and uninsured.
State budget cuts means that they will not be paid for the $64 million they provided in Medicaid care last year. The hospital will be forced to cut services to this population, including interpreters, transportation to the hospital, and primary care.
In these difficult financial times, governmental budget shortfalls will be the norm and future health care cuts are likely.
When your fiscal interests are nearly entirely at the hands of the government, you are at their mercy. It’s one reason why I’m wary of any system where the government is the only physician payer.
Related posts:
- Single-payer supporters, be careful what you wish for
- How cutting Medicaid payments hurts patients
- Is reducing medical errors similar to improving transportation safety?
- My take: Health jobs, geriatrics, hospital employment
- Primary care is damn cheap, and can solve our health care woes
- Financial crisis
- A financial motive for long ED waits?
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Our two tiered health care system is rapidly expanding. Safety net hospitals being decimated by low payment government programs (Medicaid), while the invitation only specialty hospitals in the suburbs collect enormous facility fees with the best insurance private money can buy. The cause? The skewed economics created by the specialty dominated RUC, propagated by a flawed system of RVU and SGR economics and enforced by the Medicare National Bank. You have nobody to blame but your government.
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