In The News
Medicaid payments: State reimbursements are in public interest
June 30, 2008
Honolulu Advertiser
We are writing in response to your June 25 editorial, “Lingle should release Medicaid payments.”
As an interfaith organization, we thank and appreciate your acknowledgment that it is in the public interest to provide quality care to those in Hawai’i who cannot afford it.
Our governor, in her own 2007 State of the State address, said, “High costs and low reimbursements are driving hospitals out of business and physicians out of the practice of medicine.” Her words have consistently been, “Increasing physician reimbursement rates to help cover their out-of-pocket expenses is essential to keeping medical services providers in Hawai’i.”
And in May 2008 she said to Big Island Mayor Harry Kim, “Fair and appropriate reimbursements to the medical community remain one of my highest priorities.”
We at FACE cannot accept the reality that the governor is now refusing to release millions of dollars to reimburse physicians who cared for thousands of elderly, poor, blind or disabled citizens during the past year.
The state received these services, and the governor promised to pay for these past services with $8 million in state funding and more than $10 million in additional federal matching funds.
Failure to do so is incomprehensible.
Why are we throwing away $10 million in federal matching funds?
This investment is in the public interest, and keeps our physicians and hospitals in the practice of medicine for our most vulnerable.
Clementina D. Ceria-Ulep
Chairwoman, FACE Healthcare Committee
Go to original Letter to the Editor (4th from top).
