Hospitals have pledged accept more than $150 billion in pay cuts over the next decade.
But a big hospital trade group says hospitals could receive an additional $171 billion over the next decade in reimbursements for the newly insured, more than making up for those reductions, Bloomberg reports.
The American Hospital Association says the figure was estimated for members of Congress and state hospital associations several months ago. One analyst told Bloomberg that the assessment is “consistent with reality.”
On July 8, the AHA put out a statement, along with the Catholic Health Association of the United States and the Federation of American Hospitals, stating that hospitals will “do our part to get virtually every American covered.” But, the statement warned, “the reductions of $155 billion over 10 years in the framework are substantial, are linked in part to increased coverage and cannot go any deeper without damaging hospitals’ ability to care for their communities.”
In addition to reimbursements from newly insured people, hospitals could gain from the elimination of bad debt from treating the uninsured, a guru at the political and economic advisory firm Washington Analysis told Bloomberg.
But hospitals aren’t likely to see the benefits right away. “The savings that are going to be taken from the hospital industry are likely to begin as soon as this is enacted and the enrollment of the new people under insurance reform is not going to happen until 2013, so there’s going to be a lag until they see the benefits,” Loss said.
