YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Area health-care systems tended Thursday to support the Supreme Court’s ruling preserving the majority of the Patient protection and Affordable Care Act, while insurers that offer health coverage products note more details remain to fall into place.
The “landmark decision” upholding the law, enacted more than two years ago, will make health care accessible for millions of Americans who don’t have health insurance today, said David Fikse, CEO of ValleyCare Health System of Ohio and its Northside Medical Center in Youngstown. “That’s good news for people who will be able to visit doctors, utilize hospital services and obtain preventive health care,” he said.
“We’re also pleased that expanded coverage will reduce the burden of uncompensated care on our hospital and others across the nation,” he said. “Our hospital provides medically necessary emergency care for anyone who needs it, regardless of whether the patient has insurance or the ability to pay for services. Expanded coverage will help to ensure that hospitals are reimbursed for the essential services they provide, making our nation’s healthcare system stronger for the benefit of everyone.”
Though he didn’t have exact figures available Thursday afternoon, Fikse said ValleyCare -- which operates Northside, Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland -- provides millions of dollars in uncompensated care annually. Additionally, the coverage will permit individuals who put off care to be treated earlier. “This will allow for that preventative care to take place,” potentially reducing overall health-care spending, he said.
The court’s decision to uphold the health-care law won’t have a “significant impact” on the strategic direction of Humility of Mary Health Partners, said its CEO, Bob Shroder. Before the act was passed, HMHP was pursuing “innovative strategies to improve access, quality and efficiency while lowering costs,” he remarked. HMHP operates St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown, St. Joseph Health Center in Warren and St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Center in Boardman.
“HMHP will continue to implement transformational health care strategies to enhance access, drive efficiency, lower costs and improve quality of care for the patients we serve now and in the future,” he continued. “We will continue to provide health care for everyone, whether or not they are insured. We will continue to remain true to our mission of providing high-quality, safe and timely access to care.”
“Today’s decision is historic and changes the trajectory of our health-care system in the United States,” remarked Linde Finsrud Wilson, CEO of Sharon Regional Health System in Sharon, Pa. “This decision reinforces our path of increasing quality, safety, and process efficiency. It will enable more than 40 million Americans without health insurance to now have access.”
While acknowledging the system is “significant,” Wilson said Sharon Regional has “already embarked on this path as evidenced by our significant increases in quality and patient satisfaction scores as well as the increasing numbers of our community choosing Sharon Regional for care at a most critical time for them and their families.”
While the ruling settles the status of the law itself, many of the details remain unknown, said George Morris, president of Morris Financial Group, Salem.
Morris said he wasn’t surprised at the ruling. “It was settled law and the Supreme Court does not like to overturn settled law,” he remarked. “From a national standpoint, while we all may have our individual opinions of the law, I think from a country standpoint it’s good we can get it behind us.”
While the law itself has been upheld, there remain “millions of rules and regulations” to be written around the law, Morris said.
“There’s the shell and the framework of the law but the details are still yet to be written,” he continued. “There’s a lot of moving parts to be written yet for complete implementation.”
Morris said he expects smaller clients to see little change. He has been advising clients they need to sit down and talk about what their goals and objectives are based on what 2014 is going to look like. “That’s really when all the goodies kick in. That’s when the Medicaid provisions kick in. That’s when the exchanges kick in,” he said.
While pleased that the law expands access to health insurance to those who lack it currently, “it is a dangerous thing when government mandates something like this,” remarked Jill Welsh, principal at Cailor Fleming Insurance, Boardman. “What is it going to mandate next?”
Since the court’s ruling is so recent, Welsh said she is still determining how to advise clients on its implications. “I am going to have to think about that and look at each group separately,” she said. “Some of my clients probably will keep their group insurance whereas other ones the exchanges might be the way they need to go.”
Deepak Kumar, M.D., president of the Ohio State Medical Association, said Ohio physicians remain committed to “effectively reforming an unsustainable health-care delivery system” and called on Congress to improve on “several deficiencies” in the legislation by eliminating the “flawed” Medicare Sustainable Growth rate Formula, implementing cost-saving measures such as comprehensive medical liability reform and finding alternative ways to achieve access to medical care other than “already underfunded and overstressed public programs.”
“The OSMA will continue to advocate for these reforms while working with all stakeholders to implement other important parts of the ACA. These reforms include an increased emphasis on health information technology and prevention and wellness as well as efforts to reform health care reimbursement,” he said in a statement on the association’s website.
Jeremy Lazarus, M.D., president of the American Medical Association, reiterated on his organization’s website its longtime support of health insurance coverage for all, and said it remains committed to “working on behalf of America's physicians and patients to ensure the law continues to be implemented in ways that support and incentivize better health outcomes and improve the nation's health care system.”
The ruling protects “important improvements” such as ending coverage denials due to pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps on insurance, and allowing the 2.5 million young adults up to age 26 who gained coverage under the law to stay on their parents' health insurance policies. It also will allow patients to see doctors sooner rather than waiting for treatment until they are sicker and care is more expensive.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.