PORT TOWNSEND — Representatives of Jefferson Healthcare traveled to Olympia on Wednesday to tell North Olympic Peninsula legislators that proposed cuts of funds for critical access hospitals would have a ripple effect on health care throughout the state and would destabilize local communities.
“These cuts would be devastating,” said Jill Buhler, Jefferson Healthcare board member and its former chairwoman.
“Will we close our doors? Not now, but if they take away support to critical access hospitals, we will have to cut services.”
Some of the services on the block for Jefferson Healthcare are the walk-in clinic and specialist services, as well as 25 to 30 of the hospital’s 375 full-time-equivalent positions.
“We are at the brink of survival, and these problems aren’t going away,” Buhler said.
Wednesday’s 40-minute meeting, which was initiated by hospital officials, had the purpose of enlisting the legislators’ support in opposing House Bill 2130, which would cut Medicaid reimbursements and remove cost-based reimbursement for critical access hospitals such as Jefferson.
Critical access hospitals have 25 beds or fewer.
Buhler, along with board members Chuck Russell, Tony DeLeo and Marie Dressler and hospital CEO Mike Glenn, met with Reps. Steve Tharinger and Kevin Van De Wege.
The two Sequim Democrats represent the 24th Legislative District,which covers Jefferson and Clallam counties as well as part of Grays Harbor County.
“This money is essential for the Port Townsend and Forks hospitals because they have built a network of care that will be difficult to sustain,” Tharinger said.
“We will work very hard to provide the funding for hospitals that are providing these fundamental services.”
The bill would not affect Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, which, with 80 beds, is already paid below cost for treating Medicaid patients.
The 38 critical access hospitals in Washington receive more government payments to treat a higher percentage of poor and uninsured patients in rural areas.
Representatives of the Forks Community Hospital board already have spoken with District 24 legislators “to talk about the devastation that this would have,” Camille Scott, the Forks hospital’s administrator, said Thursday.
“To have cost-based reimbursement taken away from us, we would probably look at at least $1.5 million that would not be reimbursed for care,” Scott said in a voice mail message.
“That basically would take our system and just tear it apart.”
The legislation introduced by state Reps. Eileen Cody and Ross Hunter requires the Health Care Authority to specify the way critical access hospitals are paid.
Buhler said that if the bill becomes law, the hospital would have to cut $4.5 million from its $61 million budget.
Tharinger said about $27 million would be needed to maintain current levels for all of the state’s critical access hospitals.
Buhler said the hospital will write off about $10 million of nonreimbursed care, which represents 16 percent of its budget.
Buhler said the hospital’s partnership with Swedish Medical Center — a partnership shared by OMC, with Forks Community Hospital considering it — is helping out in the budget crunch, as it helps it procure supplies less expensively.
Buhler said some of the support for the cuts came from legislators who had larger hospitals in their districts, an approach she called “penny-wise and pound-foolish.
“When a rural hospital closes its doors, the patients don’t have any place to go,” she said.
“The patients who can afford to be transported will go to the larger hospitals, which will then get stuck with the bill when the patients can’t pay.”
Buhler said it makes financial sense to treat patients locally.
“People don’t stop getting sick,” she said.
“You can’t put a patient on the shelf, wait until the economy improves and then take them down and treat them.”
Tharinger said legislators from districts with larger hospitals are trying to protect their constituents and that funding for smaller hospitals can be tied into subsidies for a large trauma center.
“After four years of billion-dollar cuts, they are looking to hang onto everything they have,” he said of his urban colleagues.
“But I think we can put the idea of ‘one Washington’ to work, where we can work together to put together a plan that works for everybody.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.