Tomah Memorial Hospital, along with other Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) across the state, will see a 10 percent reduction in Wisconsin Medicaid reimbursements beginning Jan. 1, as part of a state budget provision aimed at filling a $600-million gap in the state’s Medicaid program.

Officials from Tomah Memorial; Tri-County Memorial Hospital and Nursing Home, Whitehall; and Black River Memorial Hospital, Black River Falls; n all CAHs n met Tuesday with 31st Senate district Representative Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) to discuss the impact of the state’s 2009-2011 budget provision that calls for the Wisconsin Dept. of Health Services to cut Medicaid payments to CAHs by $18 million n or 10 percent across-the-board.

“These would be devastating cuts,” Vinehout said. “They (cuts) would mean we’d end up laying people off, it means services wouldn’t be available when they need to be available or difficult to provide them. We want to make sure the that the local hospitals have the money to provide services that the people need,” she added.

For Tomah Memorial, a Critical Assess Hospital since 2001, the cut would mean a $250,000 decrease in Medicaid reimbursements, which CEO Phil Stuart said could result in fewer local services.

“A quarter million dollars is the same as being able to hire six people,” Stuart explained. “It could mean reduction in services on a local level, and it could mean we need to change our hospital rates and charge more to those who have insurance, which is that whole cost shifting thing that we don’t want to do; so it is a very difficult situation.”

The Critical Access Hospital program was created by the 1997 federal Balanced Budget Act as a safety net device to assure Medicare beneficiaries access to health care services in rural areas. It was designed to allow more flexible staffing options relative to community need, simplify billing methods and create incentives to develop local integrated health delivery systems, including acute, primary, emergency and long-term care.

“One of the things I can do is take the information from the rural hospitals and use that to gather the legislative support among my colleagues,” Vinehout said. “We are looking at alternatives to figure out how to bring more federal money into this state.”

Vinehout said Wisconsin ranks “relatively low” among all other states in terms of bringing in federal money. “We’ve got to be smarter about how we run our Medicaid program so that we can look at options on how to bring in more federal money,” she said. “I think it’s a little bit odd the way the federal government system works, but that’s the system that we’re working with now, and if that’s what we need to do to bring in more money to keep our hospitals doing well and serving our local people n that’s what we need to do.”

Vinehout also urged local residents to show their support for local hospitals. “They (residents) can talk to their elected officials and say, ‘we need to help our Critical Access Hospitals, we need to help our rural hospitals get more federal dollars,’” she added.

Stuart, who also sits on the Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA) Board of Directors and helped organize Tuesday’s meeting said he’s pleased Vinehout is willing to work with hospital officials to prevent the devastating cuts. “I think it will be a win situation for Critical Access Hospitals and a win for the state and the budget process.”

He said plans are also underway to meet with 92nd district Rep. Mark Radcliffe (D- Black River Falls) to discuss the issue, although no date has been finalized.