Medicaid hospice funds found

Alexander spearheads effort to restore money

Money has been found to continue providing hospice care to Medicaid patients in South Carolina through June.

Sen. Thomas Alexander, R-Walhalla, said Tuesday it is the intent of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), to continue funding through the end of this fiscal year. Alexander led efforts to find the money, which had been scheduled to end Feb. 28.

DHHS Director Emma Forkner confirmed Alexander’s statement.

Less than a week ago, a DHHS bulletin outlined the agency’s intent to cut Medicaid hospice care, an action decried by professionals across the health care system as both financially unwise and morally bankrupt
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Alexander said he has been working to restore funding for several weeks, noting that cutting hospice was one of the few alternatives the state had, given that other programs are mandated and state revenues are plummeting.

“We have found some funds that can be moved around for a short period of time,” the senator said. Both he and Forkner declined to say specifically where the money would come from.

Forkner did say, however, that funding hospice would not mean a loss of funding elsewhere.

“We won’t be cutting,” the retired Air Force nurse said. “We will be using money from other areas where we have determined it will not be needed.”

Alexander said Medicaid hospice referrals put on hold in January would be processed and the referral program was being reinstated through June.

DHHS will not issue a bulletin to its providers regarding the funding until after the federal stimulus program is announced. Forkner said there is Medicaid stimulus money in the plan being debated in Washington.

“We are still going to have to be prudent,” she said. “There are nine quarters and then it goes away.

Oconee Medical Center officials declined to comment on the restoration of funding as they had not been officially notified of the action.

Locally, Oconee Hospice of the Foothills served 15 Medicaid-only patients in hospice home care and six in Cottingham House in 2008. Medicaid was billed $270,500 for the 3,317 days of care, which included the cost of drugs, supplies, equipment and the care delivered by hospice personnel.

The Medicaid established rate for home hospice care is $131.18 a day, considerably less than the average daily gross (undiscounted) hospital charge of just under $5,000. Of that, Medicaid would pay about $1,500.

“This is a short-term solution,” Alexander said. “We are committed to finding a long-term solution in the new budget.”

By Brett McLaughlin
upstate today