“The State Senate and Assembly have sent a strong and clear message to New York’s hospitals and emergency rooms:  “Help is on the way.”  Both the Assembly and Senate budget proposals released over the weekend virtually eliminated the massive cuts proposed by the Executive, and both would make desperately needed increases to the state’s Medicaid emergency room reimbursement rate, which has been frozen since 1991.”

“Nearly 3,000 health care workers and patients from every corner of the state rallied last week at the Capitol asking the Legislature to eliminate the Governor’s cuts and increase the emergency room rate.  We are enormously appreciative that the Legislature heard their message.  We encourage the Governor to approve the Legislature’s plan so that stronger, better-equipped emergency rooms can be part of his legacy.”

Background information:

Emergency Room Rates: A recent HANYS analysis found that emergency rooms (ERs) across the state lose $230 million each year due to New York’s antiquated Medicaid ER reimbursement rate. The rate has been frozen since 1991 at just $95, despite enormous growth in costs for staff, technology, energy, and pharmaceuticals. The average actual cost of treating a patient in an ER is $400, which means, on average, ERs lose $305 every time they treat a Medicaid patient.

To better illustrate how the current $95 rate affects ERs, consider the following example: A Medicaid patient enters an ER with chest pains. The ER provides an examination, blood work, medical imagery (X-ray, CT, ultrasound, etc.) and administers medications and monitoring devices. The cost to the hospital is well into the thousands of dollars. Irrespective of these actual costs, however, the state pays the hospital only $95, forcing the emergency room to absorb the loss. The Legislatures’ budget plans would raise the ER rate to as much as $190 (see attached).

Executive’s Proposed Health Care Cuts:  HANYS’ hospital-specific analysis of the Governor’s 2006-2007 Executive Budget proposal determined that every one of New York State’s 229 not-for-profit hospitals would lose critically needed funding under the Governor’s budget plan.  All told, the budget would cost hospitals in New York State hundreds of millions of dollars in just one year alone.