Suburban hospitals could take hit in proposed state budget

SPRINGFIELD — Some suburban hospitals and nursing homes might have to look at laying off staff and eliminating some services under Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to change how they are reimbursed for their care of the poor, health care officials say.

Quinn wants to reimburse hospitals and nursing homes 6 percent less for the health care provided to the poor under the state-run Medicaid program.

Hospital officials say they’re already only reimbursed for about 75 percent of the costs they incur when they care for patients who can’t pay. Getting even less would mean cutbacks in an industry that employs thousands of people in the suburbs.

Bruce Crowther, president and CEO of Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, said it’s too early to have calculated the specific impact Quinn’s plans would have. But it would hurt, and “certainly, staff aren’t exempt,” Crowther said.

“Hospitals are huge employers across the state,” he said.

Medicaid care has become a bigger issue in the suburbs in recent years as median incomes have dropped and the poverty level has risen in the collar counties, according to U.S. Census data.

Quinn officially announced his plan during his annual budget speech Wednesday. He estimates the plan could save more than $500 million for the cash-strapped state at a time when lawmakers are hungry to see budget cuts.

But opposition to the cuts exemplifies the political and real-life difficulty in cutting state services and spending. In nearly every case, state money targeted for cuts is important to someone in Illinois, and they’ll feel pain if it’s cut back.

But the state’s dire budget troubles, even after an increase in the state’s income tax rate, means more cuts might be coming.

“There’s limited revenue available right now,” said Sen. Dan Kotowski, a Park Ridge Democrat. “There’s not a magic pot of revenue out there.”

Officials at Edward Hospital in Naperville and Advocate Health Care, which has hospitals throughout the suburbs, deferred to comments made by the Illinois Hospital Association, whose staff weren’t shy about criticizing Quinn.

“These cuts that are being proposed will be devastating,” said Executive Vice President Howard Peters.

Nursing homes would get hit, too. Sen. Suzi Schmidt, a Lake Villa Republican, said Lake County’s Winchester House would feel the effects because a majority of its patients are on the Medicaid program.

“We know there will be an impact,” she said.

Terry Sullivan, regulatory director of the Heath Care Council of Illinois, said that because most of a nursing home’s cost are staff related, layoffs would be the obvious choice for cuts under Quinn’s plan.

“It’s going to have a huge impact on jobs,” he said.

Crowther said he respects that the state has to, and should, cut back its spending. But he argued the way the state delivers health care to the poor needs an overhaul bigger than what Quinn is proposing.

“To just arbitrarily pay less makes absolutely no sense,” he said.