Partners February 25, 2010
YNHH and Hospital of St. Raphael jointly hold breakfast with legislators
At a recent legislative breakfast organized by Community and Government Relations, representatives of YNHH, the Hospital of St. Raphael and the Connecticut Hospital Association briefed legislators on several issues:
- Medicaid continues to significantly under-reimburse hospitals for services to the poor and underinsured. While recognizing the challenging budget year ahead for the state, YNHH and HSR — both urban hospitals that provide an important safety net to the communities they serve — asked legislators to maintain or consider increasing the level of Medicaid funding for their services.
- Both hospitals asked that the Department of Social Services move SAGA (State Administered General Assistance) patients into Medicaid. While Medicaid pays 70 cents for each dollar of cost, SAGA reimburses only 30 cents for each dollar of service provided to single adults who have no insurance coverage. While this move would not totally address the cost of providing care, it is a step in the right direction and would provide an increased federal match, thus lessening the budget impact on the state.
- The rising cost of health insurance has an impact on hospitals as well as on employment in Connecticut. When hospitals do not get paid fully by Medicare and Medicaid, they ask more of private insurers, who pass these costs on to employees in the form of higher premiums. In the face of these rising costs, employees opt out of coverage, and employers offer less comprehensive coverage or don’t hire as many employees – all of which affects access to care and the financial health of the state.
Marna P. Borgstrom, YNHH president and CEO, started the day warmly welcoming her “colleague and new partner,” Christopher O’Connor, president of the Hospital of St. Raphael. O’Connor became president in October, but already he and Borgstrom have been working together to share issues of mutual concern with elected state officials.
In addition to representatives from both hospitals and the Connecticut Hospital Association, 13 members of both houses of the Connecticut General Assembly from the greater New Haven area attended. Borgstrom and O’Connor discussed the U.S. House and Senate health care reform bills — the future of which is unclear.
In the picture, from left: State Representatives Paul Davis, West Haven, Pat Dillon and Gary Holder-Winfield, both of New Haven; O’Connor; Borgstrom; Senators Ed Meyer, Branford, Guilford, Madison; Toni Harp, New Haven; and Joe Crisco, Woodbridge; and Representative Dick Roy, Milford.
