February 21, 2005
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MHA's Monday Executive Briefing
February 21, 2005
Quote of the Week
Rep. John Mayo, D-Clarksdale, on the House's recent legislation to close all state parks but one: "We are in Act I titled: 'This is how bad it is.' Act II will be titled: 'If you want funding restored, this is how you can do it.' Act III is titled: 'No way, no how, well maybe.' And Act IV is 'It's time to vote.'"
In this week's edition
State News
1. Wicker is most conservative
2. Giuliani to join Lott at Jackson fund-raiser
3. UMC leader says state budget ideas threaten services
4. House seeks negotiations on Medicaid deficit proposal
5. Mental health budget under fire
6. Thompson opens new district office
National News
7. Edwards to Head Poverty Center
8. Official Mum on States Cheating Medicaid
9. Bush signs bill to curb class-action suits
10. Bill would limit nurses' hours
11. AHA requests participation in their 2005 Survey of Hospital & Multi-Hospital System Investment Practices
12. Bill would increase HHS' IT support for providers
State News
1. Wicker is most conservative
Rep. Roger Wicker, R-1st District, was recently ranked the most conservative member of the delegation by The National Journal, based on selected roll call votes. The magazine gave Wicker a score of 80.5, meaning less than 20 percent of House members had a voting record that was more conservative last year.
Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., was the next most conservative with a 79.8 rating, Sen. Tent Lott, R-Miss., followed with a 74.3 rating. Rep. Chip Pickering, R-3rd District, had a 73.2 rating.
On the other side of the aisle, Democrat Gene Taylor, 4th District, was rated 54.2. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-2nd District, was the most liberal of the group with a 29.2 rating.
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2. Giuliani to join Lott at Jackson fund-raiser
In a clear sign that he is running for re-election next year, Sen. Trent Lott is ratcheting up his funds raising by inviting former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to an event in Jackson on Feb. 22.
The private event will come hours after Lott and Giuliani hold a morning news conference.
Lott raised more than $1.1 million last year and reported more than $773,000 in cash on hand as of Dec. 31.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee recently named Lott its Southeast regional fundraising chairman.
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3. UMC leader says state budget ideas threaten services
Current state budget proposals could force the University of Mississippi Medical Center to reduce some services for the poor and uninsured, the head of UMC says. "The only place we have to cut is in restricting services to people who can't afford to pay," Dr. Dan Jones told The Associated Press on Feb. 16. "This is a very, very sad situation."
Under proposals currently being considered, UMC funding would fall $23 million to $28 million short of what Jones says is needed. A bill that passed the Senate on Feb. 16 would give the hospital $660.2 million.
Jones said proposed cuts in Medicaid services - such as reducing the number of overnight hospital stays from 30 days a year to 15 days a year per patient - could force UMC to provide more uncompensated care to the poor.
Jones said UMC would have to eliminate 200-300 jobs, under current budget proposals. Some of the jobs would be lost as people retire, but others would have to be cut through firing, he said. The bill is Senate Bill 3059.
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4. House seeks negotiations on Medicaid deficit proposal
Mississippi lawmakers are a step closer to final talks on bills designed to cover a Medicaid budget shortfall. The House voted on Feb. 16 to send two bills into negotiations. Senators are expected to agree to the talks, and committee of three members from each chamber will be appointed to sit down and hash out details to cover part of the $268 million hole for the year that ends June 30.
The House and Senate have passed separate bills that would cover part of the shortfall - but neither plan comes close to covering all of it. That leaves the probability that Gov. Haley Barbour will be forced to make deeper cuts in services than those already proposed by legislators.
There are some major differences in House and Senate plans to tackle the shortfall.
The House plan includes a 50-cents-per-pack increase in the cigarette tax, which is currently 18 cents. The Senate plan does not have the additional cigarette tax. Barbour says he opposes any tax increases.
The Senate plan would remove Personnel Board protection from employees in most state agencies; Barbour wants the change so agency directors can cut government costs. House leaders oppose giving directors that authority.
The House on Feb. 16 approved a separate bill to cover Medicaid's budget for the year that starts July 1. The bills are House Bills 1104, 1579 and 1650.
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5. Mental health budget under fire
The Senate's proposed budget for the Department of Mental Health would force facilities to close and leave 1,463 employees without jobs, Sen. Billy Thames told his colleagues last week.
The employee layoffs would result in 700 closed beds due to federal staff-to-patient ratios that must be maintained, and more people would be housed in jails as they wait for beds to become available, he said.
Thames, D-Mize, voted for the bill, along with the rest of the Senate, but he urged his fellow lawmakers to find more money before the end of the session to augment the mental health budget.
The mental health budget for the current year is $536.2 million. The fiscal year 2006 budget approved by the Senate is $471.7 million.
Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Gordon, D-Okolona, said the Legislature will create a pool of money before the end of the session to bolster many agency budgets. That pool of money could come from the state's 2 percent set aside, oil and gas severance tax revenue and other sources.
The priorities for that funding would be Medicaid, Corrections, debt service and all levels of education, Gordon said.
It could be weeks before the House and Senate begin negotiating a compromise on the budget bills.
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6. Thompson opens new district office
Second District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson has opened a new district office, located at 3607 Medgar Evers Blvd. The office will be staffed by Brenda Funches.
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National News
7. Edwards to Head Poverty Center
Former Sen. John Edwards began a new job this week at the University of North Carolina. The vice-presidential candidate will teach there and head a newly formed center designed to study poverty. But Edwards has shown signs he will seek national office again in 2008.
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8. Official Mum on States Cheating Medicaid
Health Secretary Mike Leavitt on Feb. 16 refused to identify the states he says are cheating taxpayers out of $40 billion in Medicaid money, even as senators pressed him for details about President Bush's proposal to force states to curb mismanagement.
Bush has proposed squeezing Medicaid by forcing the states to find $40 billion over a decade by correcting mismanagement on their end of the state-federal health insurance program for the poor. That would lessen the financial pressure on the federal government.
Leavitt's refusal before the Senate Finance committee to name the states that are mismanaging the money aroused suspicions among senators that the administration is seeking a spending cut by another name.
Leavitt also told the Senate Committee on Finance that he opposed a bipartisan proposal for a national commission to study the Medicaid funding problem, saying, "It's time for us to make decisions. ... There is a need for swift and early action."
"If forced to make cuts in Medicaid this year, we should all realize that it is unrealistic and misleading to say that we are simply cutting fraud and closing loopholes," Max Baucus, the committee's top Democrat, told Leavitt.
Baucus said lawmakers should be given a "better understanding of what the states are doing." He asked for a state-by-state accounting of Medicaid mismanagement.
"We're still trying to figure out where they're doing it and why they're doing it," Leavitt replied.
Asked again which states and how much money each is skimming, Leavitt declined. "To the extent that we have the information available, senator, I'll he happy to."
"You should have it," Baucus interrupted. "If you don't have it that says something right off the top."
Leavitt has refused to name the offending states, except to say Utah was not one of them while he was governor. His refusal is due in part to his belief that disclosing the states could alienate the other half of the money partnership as the federal government and the states chart Medicaid's future.
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9. Bush signs bill to curb class-action suits
As President Bush signed legislation on Feb. 19 aimed at discouraging multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuits, he made clear he had his sights set on much broader restraints. Next up, Bush said, should be curbs on asbestos litigation and medical malpractice awards.
Bush said having federal judges take most large class-action lawsuits away from state courts would "prevent trial lawyers from shopping around for friendly local venues." Under the bill, class-action suits seeking $5 million or more would be heard in state court only if the primary defendant and more than one-third of the plaintiffs are from the same state.
And limiting lawyers' fees in settlements where plaintiffs win product discounts instead of money, the president said, would keep lawyers from reaping "huge pay-outs while the plaintiffs ended up with coupons worth only a few dollars." The law links attorney fees to the coupons' redemption rate or actual hours spent on the case. The measure does not apply to suits already in the courts.
In the nine-minute White House ceremony, Bush said a half-dozen times that the legislation was only a beginning in his drive to end "the lawsuit culture in our country." He also said such unnecessary litigation, particularly over medical and asbestos claims, is the reason that America's tort system - at more than $240 billion a year - is the largest of any industrialized nation. The result, Bush said, is that small business owners are in constant fear of bankruptcy and doctors are leaving their practices.
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10. Bill would limit nurses' hours
Senator Edward M. Kennedy proposed legislation recently that calls for up to $10,000 in civil penalties against hospitals that force nurses to work extra hours after completing a shift. For the full story, click here.
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11. AHA requests participation in their 2005 Survey of Hospital & Multi-Hospital System Investment Practices
The AHA is requesting your participation in the annual American Hospital Association's 2005 Survey of Hospital & Multi-Hospital System Investment Practices. The questionnaire is now available on-line at www.ahafinancialsolutions.com. It identifies trends in health care investment strategies and provides benchmarking data for you to compare your investment practices of corporate, endowment and retirement assets to those of your peers. All respondents will receive a complimentary copy of the final report and will be entered into a drawing for gift certificates to Amazon.com. If you have any questions, please contact the AHA at 800-242-4677.
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12. Bill would increase HHS' IT support for providers
An HHS program would offer providers grants, revolving loans and tax credits to buy information technology and provide incentives, such as add-on Medicare payments, to use technology to improve patient care, under legislation introduced by Reps. Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas) and John McHugh (R-N.Y.). The National Health Information Incentive Act also would direct HHS' health IT office to initiate a pilot program on national interoperability standards. President Bush's proposed fiscal 2006 budget includes $125 million for health IT initiatives.
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