Posted on 10/03/2004 3:22:30 PM PDT by JackelopeBreeder
BISBEE - Small rural hospitals such as Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee will be partly reimbursed for treating illegal immigrants under a new law that takes effect today.
The Medicare Prescription Drug and Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 will allow hospitals to be reimbursed at a small percentage for treating illegal immigrants - if the proper paperwork is filed with the federal government.
Copper Queen Community Hospital loses about $450,000 a year for treating illegal immigrants for free.
Jim Dickson, chief executive officer for the hospital, said he thinks his hospital, at best, will be receiving 10 cents on the dollar for any services rendered to illegal immigrants under the new law.
"If we get 10 cents on the dollar or $40,000 we will be lucky," he said.
Arizona is among the six states with the highest apprehension of illegal immigrants. The other five states are California, New Mexico, Texas, Florida and New York.
Under the new Medicare law, these six states will receive a third of the $1 billion that will be distributed to Medicare-participating hospitals over the next four years.
Arizona's share is $41.58 million, according to the Center for Medicine Services' formula.
"Nobody has higher (illegal immigrant) traffic than we do," Dickson said.
The funds are to be used to reimburse hospitals, physicians and ambulance services for providing emergency health care to illegal immigrants.
Each medical provider is required to seek reimbursement from all funding sources prior to submitting a claim for reimbursement under Section 1011.
Payments will be made for treating three different groups:
€ Illegal immigrants
€ Immigrants who have been paroled into the U.S. as a port of entry for the purpose of receiving eligible services
€ Mexican citizens permitted to enter the U.S. for not more than 72 hours under the authority of the biometric machine-readable border crossing identification card.
Treating and providing medical care for illegal immigrants for free is a common practice at the Bisbee hospital.
Linda Morin, nurse manager at Copper Queen, said doing so puts a financial strain on the hospital and its staff.
"We cannot go to health seminars because we do not have the money to do so," Morin said. "It all comes down to the bottom line."
The new law, spearheaded by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., is complex because of the paperwork that needs to be filed, Morin said.
She also said the hospital has to continue to treat illegal immigrants, though they will not be reimbursed any amount under this new law until April 2005.
"It's only a drop in the bucket," she said. "It's only 10 to 15 cents on the dollar."
Morin said most of the Mexican nationals the hospital treats are suffering from dehydration, which forces the hospital to often keep them overnight before releasing them.
The hospital also has compassionate entry, where its staff will meet Mexican nationals at the border who need immediate medical care.
The problem, she said, is these people do not have the funds to pay the hospital for medical services either.
"It is starting to make an impact," she said, noting the hospital had to close its long-term facility a few years ago because of a lack of funds.
"You can only lose so much money" before something has to give, she said.
Virginia Martinez, human resources manager for the hospital, said the free care the hospital is forced to give affects the employees who are providing the services.
"Every time we give free care we have to take away from the employees, and that is not right," she said.
Martinez said she understands the regulations and thinks all people need to follow them.
"I understand people want to improve themselves," she said. "All I ask is that they follow the rules like we do."
Josie Mincher, a nurse who works in the emergency room at the hospital, said 18 to 20 illegals are treated monthly there. The number, he said, increases during the summer and winter months.
Mincher said the hospital does not have the room to treat large groups because it only has four bays.
The hospital treats those in the worst condition first.
"We keep them if we have the resources," Mincher said, noting Copper Queen only has one doctor and one EMERGENCY ROOM nurse. That nurse is often Mincher.
If the hospital does not have the resources, patients are usually transported to Tucson hospitals.
She said there are times when the hospital is filled with illegal immigrants needing immediate care.
Transporting a patient by helicopter, she said, costs thousands of dollars, and transporting by ambulance is not cheap either.
"All that money is not being paid (back)," she said.
Part of the problem, Mincher said, is that families in Mexico realize U.S. hospitals have to care for them even if they do not have the funds to pay for the services.
"We are so close, and families (in Mexico) know the system here," she said. "They know we have to take care of them."
Mincher also hopes the Modernization Act helps out.
"Everything has bills," she said. "We rarely see little of them. Every little bit helps."
Morin said the hospital already has had to lay off some employees due to the loss of funds, and Mincher said most of the staff knows there is a money problem.
"You can't squeeze blood from a turnip," Mincher said.
When Mincher began working for the hospital in 1995, she treated maybe one illegal immigrant a month.
"It's getting higher and higher," she said. "They think there is so much money here."
Illegal immigrants are now coming in droves.
"I grew up on a ranch in Elgin, and we saw a few," she said. "They are now coming 30 to 60 at a time."
Dickson said the hospital only lost $30,000 in 1990 for caring for illegal immigrants, and that figure keeps increasing for several reasons.
A primary reason is the population in Naco, Sonora, continues to skyrocket, and a lot of residents there cannot afford medical care, so they come to Bisbee for free service. They also realize U.S. medical providers are better equipped than the doctors in their own country.
"The level of care here is one of the best in the world," he said.
Dickson said there are people living in Naco, Sonora, who visit his hospital because of its proximity, which compounds the financial situation the hospital is in.
"It is faster to send them here," he said.
Mincher said the ambulance that was donated to Naco, Sonora, earlier this month may slow this kind of traffic.
Dickson said his hospital, along with other rural hospitals, is hard pressed to fund medical providers when it must treat everyone who comes in, regardless of whether or not they can pay.
"We are in jeopardy," he said. "The government needs to realize this. If they do not, there is a good chance this hospital will not be here in five years."
Morin said the bill is a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done.
"We have to be open," she said. "If we do not stay open, Bisbee is going to be deprived."
Illegal immigrants getting free medical care is just part of the problem, Morin said.
Arizona Healthcare Cost Containment insurance only pays hospitals 47 percent of the actual billing costs, and the medical provider has to eat the other 53 percent.
"The more (patients) we treat, the more we lose," she said, adding illegal immigrants are not eligible for AHCCCS. U.S. residency is required to be eligible.
The paper trail that hospitals will have to submit to be eligible for funds under this new law gives Dickson some hope.
"If it does nothing else, it will measure the problem," he said. "(Right now) it is very hard to measure the full impact. They will have a good idea when we start billing how big the problem is. There is now a system to measure the problem."
The hospital CEO said the problem will not be solved until the Mexican and U.S. government acknowledge this is their problem and it is not going to go away on its own.
Dickson said the forms illegal immigrants will be asked to fill out so hospitals will be paid something for services rendered are a little silly in his opinion. It asks the patient's name, address, phone number and place of birth, as well as if they are a U.S. citizen.
Dickson said Mexican nationals in the United States illegally are not going to tell the truth to any of those questions. They are allowed to check the decline-to-answer box. He thinks that option will be used often.
"Come on, get real," Dickson said of the questions.
All the hospitals have to do is make a good-faith effort to get the information to get reimbursed, he said.
We have only one remaining OB/GYN clinic in a county larger than the state of Connecticutt. Non-paying patients from south of the border drove the rest under a couple of years back. Pregnant Mexican women would show up even before going into labor and insist on being admitted -- with absolutely no intention of paying for anything.
There is no trauma center here. In fact, there is only one remaining trauma center in southern Arizona. The rest closed due to losing too much money. The 70-mile helicopter ride from Sierra Vista to University Medical Center in Tucson costs a paying American patient just about $10,000 in order to make up for the dozens of non-paying illegals per month.
Ping!
Apropos of something or other, this article used the term "illegal immigrants" 17 times. Personally, I prefer the term border-hopping, visa over-staying, law breaking, scum sucking foreign nationals.
"Nobody has higher (illegal immigrant) traffic than we do," Dickson said."
Yeah, well get in line Dickson. When your county owned hospital's patients ar more than 90% illegal immigrants, give LA County a call. They'll be able to advise you on what they've done to survive over the last twenty years.
Yes the traffic is heavy in Arizona, but I doubt all the entries are staying in Arizona as they did California for decades. California still gets a lions share of them after they come across, family ties being the main reason.
God forbid we should simply close that damned border.
Also residing in the middle of the battle zone here in Mexifornia, I agree with you! Did you read in the paper that two of our local trauma facilities are getting ready to close their doors due to "uninsured" patients? This makes it pretty tough for paying customers who will have to go further for needed care, just to find the further facilities filled with "uninsured" patients too.
Lest we forget that the Raymond W. Bliss Army Hospital on Fort Huachuca, which used to be a full service hospital (in patient surgery, ER, OB/GYN, etc.....) was reduced to an out patient clinic operating M - F on limited hours courtesy of the Sperminator.
All those floors of hospital bed space going to waste, the loss of jobs and all that equipment just gathering dust.
Nothing to do with the illegals but still another affect of the liberal left.
PROP. 200 BUMP
To use the old CB lingo; That's a big 10-4!
A crying shame.
I passed through Bisbee in early 1982, staying at the Copper Queen Hotel and enjoying the atmosphere at St.Elmo’s. It was a nice quiet laid back town.
From what I’ve heard the last year or so it has lost much of its quiet appeal.
For anyone interested in very old firearms I recommend stopping in at St.Elmo’s (36 Brewery Ave.?)– they have had a policy of confiscating weapons from unruly patrons and hanging them on a wall. The walls are covered with everything from very old Indian Lances and flintlocks to modern pieces. I even remember seeing an early Mauser (96?)auto pistol – the old one with the magazine forward of the trigger.
With no "emergency" per se at the time (since she's not in labor...yet) they can lawfully deny her demands on being admitted, no?
Correct. If it isn't an emergency, the hospital wants to see money or insurance up front. You wouldn't believe how many show up in flashy new vehicles and claim poverty.
I believe it. I worked for years for a group of docs in Orange County, California near "little Saigon", the town of Westminster where lots of Vietnamese settled. The Vietnamese ladies wearing their designer clothes and expensive shoes would drive up in a Mercedes Benz, come up to the office with their mothers or fathers in tow. The parents never spoke any English and were dressed in native Vietnamese clothing, but somehow their medical bills were all paid for by the state of California SSI. Everyone was on the dole, even if they could afford to pay, because "American taxpayers are generous".
Somehow I just don't remember being able to vote on issues like this... America is becoming the flophouse for the third world while our politicians smile and tell us that diversity is wonderful...
Talk about sending the wrong message. Saying that the govt. will kick in money to subsidize this is like sending an engraved invitation to the illegals.
Got that right. That's your tax money and mine being spent. The whole thing is just smoke and mirrors.
That's exactly what our government has been doing for many years, rolling out the red carpet at our expense.
Interesting....
Are there any government freebies that CITIZENS can collect simply by providing name, address, phone, birthplace, & citizenship ???? (w/ lies accepted)
Can CITIZENS also receive these same 'freebies' if we just check the "decline to answer box" ???
(anyone know of ANY government forms (for citizens) that contain a "decline to answer box" ?? or is this another *special* for ILLEGALS ONLY ?? )
Illegal aliens are a privileged class.
Or maybe more important are the higher welfare benefits California gives out. I remember a Mexican who was working in El Paso but living in Juarez was complaining about having to move to California because services were much better there -- she had a handicapped child and was upset with having to cut off family ties but California offered far more than Texas.
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