Many healthcare leaders are doing a thorough review of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act after President Donald Trump signed it into law on July 4.
Along with a decrease in nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid spending, the bill could increase the number of uninsured people by 11.8 million by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
“There are a lot of trickle-down ramifications in the healthcare industry that’ll take place over the next 10 years,” said Dennis Hesch, executive vice president and chief finance and strategy officer of Urbana, Ill.-based Carle Health, during a Becker’s CFO+Revenue Cycle Podcast episode. “I think everybody, including [we] here at Carle Health, is trying to anticipate and review the bill to figure out how will it impact us … and how will it impact our revenue streams as we continue to look at supporting the communities and structuring ourself in a manner that would better support the care delivery model that we put in place here.”
With around $5 billion in total annual revenue, Carle Health comprises a health plan and eight hospitals across central Illinois. Mr. Hesch said the goal now is to go through the 887-page legislation line by line to find out what it means for the health system.
Mr. Hesch and his team are working to evaluate the overall federal policy and language in the bill, and will then dive deeper into the impact it could have in central Illinois.
“Another big piece is the anticipation and reduction of Medicaid reimbursement, and what that may mean for the states and the state populations it covers,” he said. “That’s really where we are spending some time now, trying to equate it to what the impact means here in Illinois, especially in central Illinois, with a rural market, and how is that going to impact the care that we deliver?”
Mr. Hesch said Carle Health operates the second-busiest emergency department in the state and, regardless of changes that come with the bill, he expects care demand to remain constant.
“What we need to determine is, how is the financial reimbursement going to be impacted with these changes that are forthcoming,” he said. We probably won’t see them this month or next month. It’s more over the rest of this year, into the next several years, and we just need to plan and anticipate appropriately.”
