Issues » Health Care
Health Care
Quality healthcare is vital to the welfare of Hawaii’s citizens and its economy. Our healthcare system takes into account the social, historical and cultural needs of the people of Hawaii, particularly our families, our elderly and our disabled, and must be protected for future generations. It is also the fourth largest private industry in Hawaii, providing a significant number of jobs for our people.
The quality healthcare system that Hawaii has known for years is in crisis. It is eroding because healthcare providers such as doctors and hospitals are no long being paid enough to cover increasing the increasing costs of delivering essential services. Hawaii’s healthcare providers are reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid at well below the national rate, with dire consequences:
• Hawaii Medical Center East & West (HMC, the former St. Francis) has gone bankrupt.
• Hawaii Health System Corporation, our safety net of hospitals and physicians for primarily rural areas, has a budget deficit of $62 million and rising.
• HMC limits the number of dialysis patients it will admit and other hospitals are beginning to do the same.
• Physicians, particularly specialists, are leaving Hawaii.
• Hospital stays are being reduced and services to the elderly, patients in rural areas and on Neighbor Islands are increasingly limited.
• Jobs are being lost across the healthcare industry.
FACE supports a State public policy of focusing on government payers in the Medicare and Medicaid/Quest programs. Adequate reimbursement to healthcare providers for our vulnerable citizens is imperative to assure access to high quality care.
ACTION 1:
A. FACE will work with legislative and administrative leaders to develop mechanisms that will permanently increase State Medicaid/Quest reimbursements. This will fund doctors, pharmacies, hospitals, other healthcare providers and the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation at rates that at least cover costs.
B. FACE will work with the State Administration and the State’s Congressional delegation to encourage nationwide changes in Medicare levels as well as to obtain a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for Hawaii, similar to the outpatient COLA received by physicians and hospitals in Alaska.
ACTION 2:
FACE will request that the Hawaii State Legislature hold an informational hearing in October 2008 to address public concerns on a recent administrative decision to award a $1.5 billion QUEST Expanded Access (QExA) Medicaid contract for Hawaii’s Aged, Blind and Disabled (ABD) population to two for-profit entities from the mainland. This informational hearing should be focused on:
1) The details of the selection (RFP) process, and the credibility, corporate profile and history of the awardees in other communities so as to protect the cultural, social and historical needs of Hawaii’s most vulnerable population.
2) The plans and intentions of the administration and the awardees to address the sufficiency of their physician, pharmacies and other provider network providers, and their contingency plans in the event their network is insufficient to provide equal access to care for the ABD population.
3) The plans and intentions of the administration and the awardees to provide adequate reimbursements to the physicians, pharmacies and other providers of healthcare.
4) A detailed and adequate explanation regarding the use of Federal and State revenue to pay State excise taxes for for-profit companies which are contracted to serve the ABD population.
items of interest
808-522-1304 • face.office(at)facehawaii.org
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