2009

Some cuts never heal

MHA produced this series of fact sheets to inform state lawmakers of hospitals' community contributions and economic challenges.

• Issue 1: "Health care is not recession proof:" [PDF]
• Issue 2: "Governor's budget takes disproportionate cut from health and human services": [PDF]
• Issue 3: "Hospitals create jobs for Minnesotans": [PDF]
• Issue 4: "What will happen to our citizens if they are cut from MinnesotaCare?"[PDF]
• Issue 5: "We just do what needs to be done." A look at how Minnesota hospitals are coordinating evacuation and care of patients in face of the ND/MN flood. [PDF]
• Issue 6: Recent news headlines on the governor's budget: [PDF]

Myth vs. Reality

MHA debunks some of the perceptions about health care spending and hospital reimbursement: [PDF]

2008

Starting the Health Care Reform Journey

Health-care reform was a key 2008 legislative issue. To see a summary and timeline of the final reform bill, click here: [PDF.]

Proposed HHS budget cuts

This table provides a quick look at how much hospitals stand to lose (due to lost federal matching dollars) under the current House and Senate proposals:[PDF].

Hospital Medical Assistance Rates

Ten years ago, the reimbursement that the state paid to hospitals for providing services to individuals enrolled in our state health-care programs was fairly close to actual costs. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. How did hospital payments get so out-of-line with actual hospital costs? When and how were hospital payments cut? This fact sheet explains the history and effect of Medical Assistance Rebasing: [PDF]

Hospital Financing Issues

The House Bill proposes to cut hospital payments $43 million in the '08-'09 biennium and $55 million in the '10-'11 biennium. While the State would save $98.3 million, the impact to hospitals would be $187.6 million in reduced hospital payments because of the loss of federal matching funds: [PDF]