Hospital gets another break

Since the first of the year, Medi-Cal cuts have meant cash bleed for the Sonoma Valley Hospital. A newly proposed bill would make those cuts even deeper. But thanks to careful scrutiny by the hospital, and quick response from State Assembly member Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), new legislation will take the bite out of that bill.
The problem is a matter of language and how AB 1183 defined the targets for its cuts. Huffman said in a prepared statement, “This interpretation leaves smaller hospitals feeling the heat of the cuts.”
Since the first of the year, the hospital has faced 10 percent Medi-Cal cuts, and another round of cuts in October. AB 1183 would extend cuts even further, in those areas that have three or more acute-care hospitals. As currently written, Sonoma Valley Hospital, Petaluma Valley Hospital and the Sonoma Developmental Center were counted together, and so would qualify for the additional cuts.
“Which was crazy,” said the hospital’s chief financial officer Jim McSweeney. Sonoma Developmental Center isn’t an acute-care hospital at all. “We brought it to their attention,” he said, and Huffman’s office got right on it.
Debra Gravert, Huffman’s chief of staff, explained that the way the bill was written, if there are three or more acute-care centers in an area, the cuts would apply. So if they exempt all state hospitals out of the formula, then Sonoma Developmental Center would be removed. That would leave only acute-care bed hospitals, of which, in Huffman’s district, there are two – Sonoma Valley Hospital and Petaluma Valley Hospital. For them, the 10 percent cut would not apply.
Gravert explained that AB 1183 was written at an end of budget session and was “thrown together very quickly.” She said her office had been talking with the Department of Health Care Services to see if they could fix the problem without new legislation. “We’re supposed to hear the first or second week in January.”
McSweeney said the savings will amount to about $200,000 per year and that he appreciated Huffman’s swift attention after hospital staff brought the discrepancy to his attention. The hospital’s communications director Bob Rice said, “It could potentially eliminate those cuts and do us great good!”