Coastal Healthcare CEO says Medicaid cuts in Maine could be devastating for hospitals

Mark Fourre, CEO of Coastal Healthcare Alliance, the parent company of Pen Bay Healthcare in Rockport, Maine, and Waldo County Healthcare in Belfast, Maine, told state lawmakers a budget proposal by Republican Gov. Paul LePage could harm hospitals, reports The Free Press.

Here are four things to know.

1. Mr. Fourre made the comments in regard to the governor's proposal to reduce Medicaid reimbursement rates to rural healthcare providers by 8 percent and cut Medicaid coverage for approximately tens of thousands of low-income people, according to the report. Under the budget proposal, Medicaid coverage would be cut for low-income families living as low as 59 percent below the federal poverty level. If passed, the proposal would also end coverage for 6,000 low-income 19- and 20-year-olds currently eligible for the benefit, the report states.

2. According to the report, Mr. Fourre told the Maine Legislature's appropriations and financial affairs committee: "Pen Bay and Waldo are the primary employers of our communities. We have over 2,200 employees. They currently depend on us for their jobs, their benefits and their livelihood. These reductions would definitely threaten our ability to maintain those employees [at] their current status, and we would undoubtedly have to lay off employees, causing increases to the number of unemployed in the state of Maine."

3. Mr. Fourre isn't the only hospital representative speaking out on the budget proposals. Jeff Austin, executive director of the Maine Hospital Association, said Maine hospitals stand to lose about $66 million annually because of state cuts.

"First of all it is important for you to keep in mind … that when there is a [state] savings of $1 in Medicaid, it is a $3 loss to us," Mr. Austin told lawmakers, according to the report. "Medicaid carries with it the automatic and irrevocable loss of that $2 associated with the dollar loss in Medicaid."

4. Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew argued the proposed state Medicaid cuts are designed to redirect funds to "our state's neediest and most vulnerable," increase Medicaid beneficiaries' access to preventative primary care, and reduce her agency's budget below present spending levels, according to the report.

For more on this story, including further comments by Ms. Mayhew and hospital representatives, read the full report here.

 

 

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