The recent report on hospital expenses in Ohio’s workers compensation system which indicated WC generates less than 1% of cases but 12.5% of profits for hospitals has become the proverbial kick that overturned the ant hill. The governor has ordered the Bureau of Workers Comp to determine if hospital costs can be reduced; a major union has called for deep reductions in hospital reimbursement; the Ohio Hospital Association has vowed to participate in discussions “with an open mind and a flak jacket”; and the Bureau itself has vowed to take an active role in the process.
The latest news on the issue comes from the Columbus Dispatch;
“This month, The Dispatch used the union’s analysis to show that during the past seven years, the bureau paid hospitals about $544 million above their actual costs to treat injured workers.
The hospitals made an average of about 50 percent on workers’ compensation cases, far more than they made for treating patients with private or government insurance, such as Medicare.
Bureau records show payments to hospitals rose 80 percent between 1997 and 2003, though the number of injured workers dropped by nearly a third.”
The study of the BWC’s hospital expenses was initiated by the Service Employees International Union and shared with the newspaper, who reviewed the data and participated in the analysis. According to the Dispatch, the “Service Employees International Union District 1199, which represents 27,000 health-care workers in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, will pitch a proposal it says would save $90 million a year.
The union plan would reimburse hospitals for the cost of care – as defined by the federal government – plus 10 percent. Under the current system, hospitals are paid based on the bills they submit, which sometimes are multiple times the actual cost of care.
As an aside, one wonders how many union employees are working at hospitals that would be affected by their proposal
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