Maine hospitals are hurting and need a break from the state

By Steven Michaud, Maine Hospital Association president

Maine hospitals are hurting. They are under enormous financial pressure from staff shortages, inflation, aggressive payment denial practices by insurance companies, attacks by pharmaceutical companies, a litany of problems with Medicaid and looming cuts from Washington, D.C.

The Maine Hospital Association recently commissioned an analysis from a national research firm which illustrates these challenges in a new national context. For example, Maine’s medium and larger-sized hospitals are the fifth poorest and the second most heavily indebted in the country and their facilities are the fifth oldest. 

Our patients are facing high co-pays and deductibles they can’t afford and employers are dealing with ever increasing insurance premiums for their employees.

What do hospitals want? What do hospitals need?

Hospitals just want some air. We simply need room to breathe.

Hospitals need the State House to not impose new taxes (three taxes on health care are proposed in the recently passed biennial budget); no cuts to hospital physicians who treat poor children and the mentally ill (a massive such cut is in the biennial budget); protection from attacks by pharmaceutical companies on our federal financial support programs; and, the rejection of unproven staffing mandates with a $100 million price tag (a similar mandate was not enacted last year but is back again).

Hospitals simply want a year off from the never-ending litany of new rules, regulations, taxes and payment methodology changes.  

We would also appreciate help addressing the challenge of kids with behavioral health needs getting stuck in emergency rooms for weeks and months — for whom Medicaid refuses to make any payment — and the seemingly endless violence against our workforce.

Hospitals need the Legislature and governor to pass legislation immediately to pay their bills and end the harmful reimbursement cuts that are imposed on small, rural hospitals right now. Finally, hospitals don’t need a government shut-down this summer due to a referendum veto of the budget.

But mostly, hospitals just need space to navigate these difficult times.

And they are about to get more difficult. The federal government is $36 trillion in debt and one of the most notable images in Washington, D.C. right now is a chainsaw. A chainsaw.  

A storm of program cuts is brewing in Washington and is headed our way.

In the past few years, we’ve seen nursing home closures as well as the loss of services for kids in crisis. Maine hospitals have been forced to cut programs like labor and delivery and they have also cut jobs. One hospital just announced its closure, and a few others are on the brink.

The national analysis released by MHA includes a closure risk assessment for hospitals in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Relative to our northern New England neighbors, hospitals in Maine are at greater risk of closure. In fact, 76 percent of hospitals in Maine are at a medium or high risk of closure compared to only 40 percent in New Hampshire and 71 percent in Vermont. A full 12 percent of Maine hospitals are at a high risk whereas New Hampshire and Vermont are at 4 percent and 7 percent respectively.

And yet, every day and every night our care teams are there. They are providing care that is both high quality and compassionate for people in their moment of need and even during unimaginable tragedy. But there is no guarantee that they will always be there.  

Hospitals need a break; we need to be able to catch our breath. And we need our state leaders to help make this happen.