Column: Health-care reform's impact on hospital difficult to assess

I have been receiving many questions regarding the recently passed insurance reform bill and have been asked to give my opinion of the legislation.  And more importantly, I have been asked to summarize how this new law will affect St. John’s.

The short answer is, I really can’t say; no one can. Until the Senate takes up the “fix bill,” and then, if it is changed at all and goes back to the House, we really won’t know for certain what the reform package will actually include and when it will begin to take effect.

The original Senate bill contains a number of provisions that will be very good for Critical Access Hospitals like St. John’s. These provisions address longstanding weaknesses or deficiencies in this federal payment system. That is the good part.

The concerning part is that many elements of the bill are very vague; things like bundling, value-based purchasing and the medical home model. While interesting in theory, and possible in much larger communities/facilities, these ideas and the actual language in the bill are quite vague.

In addition, the bill will need to work its way through the federal bureaucracy before it can be implemented, most notably the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, and that process will need to be completed before we will really be able to determine the real impact on us.

Add to that the fact that numerous provisions of the legislation are not scheduled to go into effect for several years, my advice is that we all need to be patient and continue to monitor these topics as they unfold. 

For right now, St. John’s will work with our local employers as we see how some of the immediate provisions will be put into effect and the cost these provisions will have on our current health policies. 

Examples that come to mind include the requirement that there be no lifetime limit on a policy, or that adult children will be able to stay on their parent’s policy until the age of 26; these changes go into effect this year, but we don’t know how the rates of St. John’s current policies, or those of our local businesses, will be affected by these new requirements. After all, improvements in benefits always come at a cost.

Each of us has our own opinion about whether this legislation is a good idea or not and St. John’s won’t get in the middle of that debate. We have many state and federal requirements that will be affected by these changes, and we are in regular contact with our elected officials to make sure we don’t overlook anything.

As we have done for more than 50 years, we will find a way to work through all of the changes in these government rules and regulations. We will make sure that we continue to provide you with the high-quality health-care services you need, right here, close to home.

(Bill Patten is chief executive officer of St. John’s Lutheran Hospital in Libby).