Bustos urges House leaders to stop federal relief for hospitals not accepting Medicaid patients

A local member of Congress speaks out, asking the House of Representatives to stop future federal relief payments for health systems that stop accepting Medicaid patients during the pandemic.

"Mercyhealth, in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, to tell 66,000 patients who are on Medicaid that they will no longer take them, in my opinion, that is unconscionable," said Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-17th).

After Mercyhealth receives $13 million through the CARES Act, Rep. Cheri Bustos urges Congress to stop future COVID-19 relief to hospitals and health care providers that aren't accepting Medicaid insurance.

"Keep in mind, it's a nonprofit health system, but it is making decision to put profits over people," said Bustos.

In response, Mercyhealth Vice President Barb Bortner released a statement, saying:

"It is unfortunate Congresswoman Bustos is spending her time on this issue instead of trying to help us with the major State of Illinois Medicaid reimbursement issue we are facing as the largest Medicaid provider in her entire district.

The CARES ACT funding we received was for COVID-19 patients from January 1 through April 10, 2020. Hospitals across the nation submitted their COVID-19 inpatient volumes. We treated over 100 patients during this time frame at our Rockford hospitals thus we received funding as did hundreds of other hospitals across the United States. Other Rockford hospitals did not treat this number of patients during this time frame, nor did Mercyhealth’s other hospitals thus, no funding was received at those hospitals.

Further, we continue to treat all Medicaid patients. The earliest any insurance contract expires in July of 2020. This is plenty of time for Medicaid patients, if negotiations do not work out, to find a new provider at SwedishAmerican or OSF. Both provide excellent care. This is no different than what occurred with OSF last year when they terminated contacts with some Medicaid MCOs and patients who wanted to stay with those insurance carriers transferred to Mercyhealth or SwedishAmerican. When OSF made that decision, Congresswoman Bustos was silent.

Congresswoman Bustos is a strong advocate for the protection of healthcare workers and strengthening our communities. It seems ironic that the Congresswoman is expecting one of the largest Medicaid providers in the State of Illinois to provide care without getting paid.

We have asked Congresswoman Bustos in the past, and we continue to ask in the future, for help to fix the State of Illinois Medicaid reimbursement issues that hospitals and health systems across the State of Illinois are dealing with (especially during this COVID-19 situation), Mercyhealth being one of the largest Medicaid providers in the entire State of Illinois.”

Bustos says she wrote the letter in the hopes that the health system will reevaluate its decision on Medicaid.

"Take a look at what the word 'mercy' means, it certainly doesn't mean that you tell 66,000 current patients that we're not going to care for you anymore."

On Tuesday, the state of Illinois announced $75 million in COVID-19 stability payments heading to the state's hospitals under the Illinois Medicaid Managed Care Organization partnership.