LegisLetter
Tuesday, February 3, 2009	UHA, Utah Hospitals & Health Systems Association
In This Issue Legislature Finalizes 2009 Budget – Real Work on 2010 Budget to Begin Good and Bad News on Medicaid Budget Three Major Health Reform Bills Still to be Debated Plan On Attending UHA’s Hospital Day at the Legislature on February 25 UHA Is Here to Help Keep You Informed Legislative Links http://www.le.state.ut.us/ Official web page of the Utah State Legislature http://uha-utah.org/advocacy.html UHA’s online advocacy center UHA Corporate Sponsors www.amerisourcebergen.com www.goldcrossambulance.com www.hbecorp.com www.vistastaff.com www.yestutah.org www.molinahealthcare.com www.ut.regence.com Other Useful Links http://www.aha.org/ http://www.healthinsight.org/ http://www.rules.utah.gov/ Contact Us http://www.uha-utah.org dave@uha-utah.org	Legislature Finalizes 2009 Budget – Real Work on 2010 Budget to Begin The state budget has an estimated revenue shortfall of $350 million for the current 2009 fiscal year which ends June 30, 2009 as well as an FY2010 budget shortfall of $650 million. The Legislature has addressed the fiscal year 2009 budget by cutting $350 million and then “backfilling” with $175 million in one time funding so that the cut is actually a total of $175 million.  This is good news for fiscal year 2009 but this means that for fiscal year 2010, the Legislature starts with the cuts of $350 million as the “base budget” for the fiscal year 2010 budget and there is no guarantee that they will continue to backfill as they did in fiscal year 2009. Good and Bad News on Medicaid Budget There is some good news for hospitals for fiscal year 2009.  Essentially, Utah’s hospitals will take a cut of $1.1 million in state funds for their Medicaid reimbursement as the Legislature backfilled some of the cuts to hospitals for fiscal year 2009.  This is good news because there were many additional cuts directly and indirectly on hospital funding that were discussed but not done by the Legislature.  The bad news is that as of this point the Legislature has built in to the fiscal year 2010 base budget a minimum of a $6 million state hospital reimbursement cut.  This is just the state portion and adding the federal funding portion could mean hospital cuts in the tens of millions of dollars.  UHA will continue to strongly oppose these large hospital Medicaid reimbursement cuts and will continue to strongly oppose any hospital tax.  Other good news is that for fiscal year 2009, there will be no Medicaid eligibility reductions but these will still be considered for fiscal year 2010.   The fiscal year 2010 budget debate is likely to play out until the very end of the session.  There are a variety of options available to the Legislature to lessen the cuts to hospitals.  UHA encourages all hospitals to contact their legislators to oppose these deep Medicaid hospital cuts and to oppose any hospital provider tax. Three Major Health Reform Bills Still to be Debated Negotiations continue over the three reform bills that the Legislative Task Force on Health Care Reform has recommended.  The comprehensive health insurance reform bill will draw the most discussion and debate but after a number of meetings a new draft has not yet been made available.  UHA is in the negotiations on these bills and we are protecting hospitals’ interests. Plan On Attending UHA’s Hospital Day at the Legislature on February 25 Thanks to all who attended UHA’s Annual Legislative Reception last week.  Several hospital leaders met with many legislators in this enjoyable evening event.  We also encourage you to plan to come to our Annual UHA Hospital Day at the Legislature at the State Capitol on Wednesday, February 25^th.  We will have a wonderful lunch in the capitol rotunda with many legislators and we hope you will come.  Please email Brenda at brenda@uha-utah.org if you plan to attend. UHA Is Here to Help You Keep Informed Please visit the UHA website at www.utah-utah.org for more legislative information.  For additional legislative information you can go to the legislative website at www.le.state.ut.us where you can read and track proposed legislation, see committee agendas and find lots of other pertinent information.  If you have specific questions or concerns, please e-mail Dave Gessel at dave@uha-utah.org or call him at 231-3404.