LIHUE — An emergency funding request to cover a short-term deficit with the statewide public health care system appears to have died. The Senate’s Emergency Appropriation Bill for Hawaii Health Systems Corporation was a follow up for a $18.2 million
LIHUE — An emergency funding request to cover a short-term deficit with the statewide public health care system appears to have died.
The Senate’s Emergency Appropriation Bill for Hawaii Health Systems Corporation was a follow up for a $18.2 million request to cover all regions and hospitals in the state HHSC system. It wasn’t scheduled for a hearing before the House Finance Committee on Tuesday, which essentially killed the bill.
HSCC operates Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waimea, Samuel Mahelona Memorial in Kapaa and three clinics in Waimea, Port Allen and Kalaheo. The emergency funding included $3.7 million for Kauai to ensure solvency through June 30.
“This was a shock and I have no insight on why the bill is not being heard,” said HHSC Kauai Region Interim CEO Scott McFarland. “I was quite surprised.”
The emergency funding was to pay the final amount of a previously approved request. He said it will be a challenge for operations to reach the next fiscal period.
“I am working with the entire Kauai Legislative delegation on attempting to find an alternate legislative vehicle to ensure the HHSC Kauai Region has the cash to operate over the next 90 days,” McFarland said.
HHSC Interim Acting President and CEO Alice Hall, said the bill had cleared two other committees and they did not expect it to stall Tuesday. The funding was to cover federal cuts in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, and make up the difference with a collective bargaining increase that came after the budget was approved.
Other cost saving measures are already in place and the delay will likely mean holding off paying venders until after July 1.
“They are already being kind and patient with us as it is,” Hall said.
The options so far include requesting the funding with the next fiscal budget, and to seek a loan from a more solvent region. The other HHSC regions were a part of the emergency funding request which puts internal lending in doubt.
The loss of funding will not mean a loss of services or layoffs as that requires a lengthy process involving community, union and state input, she said.
“We are concerned about patient safety and you can be sure that is taken care of and that we consider safety net services,” Hall said.
The shortfall came from federal cuts to reimbursements over two years, while at the same time operating costs were rising, she said. Then the number long-term care bed patients fell short of projections from November through February.
“We don’t have the flexibility to adjust to all those things going on,” Hall said.
District 16 State Rep. Dee Morikawa, said this is not something to panic over when the Legislature has already funded HHSC’s Kauai operations with $7 million that was proposed to last until the end of this fiscal year.
The first thing is to see where that funding went and then find out why there is a request for more short-term support, she said. There are other avenues to provide emergency funding for the hospitals when they can figure out with what’s happening with their spending
“I think there is going to be a lot of panic but right now it is too soon and there are other avenues to get the funding in place before the end of the legislature. At this point I don’t think we need to panic,” Morikawa said.
