Medicare reform could drive hospital change GoDanRiver.com
Everyone agrees the health reform law will impact the region’s emergency departments, yet no one really knows how.
Analysts and health care leaders say emergency departments — including those in Danville, Lynchburg and Roanoke — will see increased demand as health insurance reform rolls out.
The financial impact is hard to predict. Hospital leaders hope insuring more people would result in less uncompensated care. Yet, because of that same assumption, Medicare plans to reduce payments to hospitals.
“We really don’t know,” said E.W. Tibbs, vice president, operations, for Lynchburg-based Centra. “Any answer beyond that would be speculative and based off of assumptions that have yet to be determined.”
Many of the regulations for the new health-care system must still be written. Tibbs and other leaders say that while the reform expands health insurance coverage for more people, primary care networks still need to evolve to meet the new demand or emergency departments will continue to be “safety nets” for communities.
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