Waxman: Medicaid Cuts Could Hurt Response In Attacks

Mon. May 5, 2008


Pending administration cuts in Medicaid payments to hospitals will strain already-overstretched trauma centers most capable of responding to a mass casualty situation in the cities at highest risk for a terrorist attack, according to a new report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Those hospitals with Level 1 trauma centers could on average lose $27 million annually, or 5 percent of their budget, as a result of the three regulations, according to the report. The report was discussed as the panel heard today from health officials who offered ominous predictions of scaling back vital services necessary to respond to terrorism or other emergencies. "They will stop being trauma centers, and we will lose them, and it will be tragic," said Jay Wayne Meredith, chairman of general surgery at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Level 1 trauma centers maintain the expensive task of keeping the staff and resources available on site each day to handle traumatic events, explained Lisa Kaplowitz, Virginia's deputy commissioner for emergency preparedness and response.

Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman Getty Images

Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman blamed HHS Secretary Leavitt for implementing the regulations "without once considering the impact on national preparedness." Leavitt and Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff will appear before Waxman's committee Wednesday to testify about the topic. The regulations limit payments to public providers and for outpatient services and will also cut payments for graduate medical education. They are three of seven administration Medicaid regulations that Congress is attempting to thwart. The House overwhelmingly passed a one-year moratorium and Senate Democrats are attempting the same, although they have met more Republican resistance than their House counterparts.

The Oversight and Government Reform report surveyed hospitals with Level 1 trauma centers in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, and Houston. It found that on March 25, hospitals with Level 1 trauma centers in all five cities were operating over capacity. Washington was the most stretched, and its two Level 1 trauma centers were 214 percent over capacity. The report also looked at Level 1 trauma centers at the sites of the upcoming Democratic and Republican national conventions in Denver and Minneapolis. The cities' facilities were near capacity at 92 percent and 91 percent, respectively.

by Anna Edney

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