HOULTON — Five years ago, hospitals in Aroostook County were under financial strain and complaining about being owed millions of dollars for care extended to patients covered by the MaineCare program.
At the time, hospital administrators were cautiously optimistic about a supplemental budget proposed by Gov. Paul LePage in January 2011, which included approximately $70 million to reduce the state’s share of debt to hospitals resulting from underpayments in the MaineCare program.
Today, Tom Moakler, the CEO of Houlton Regional Hospital, says that the state has made good on its promise and that payments to the 25 licensed acute bed hospital are “much more timely.”
“We receive what are called periodic interim payments each week, and it is working fine,” he said. He also noted that a number of low-income residents have lost MaineCare coverage because of cuts to the program under the LePage administration, which also has “made a difference in that program.”
“Getting it set up so that so we receive periodic payments is working out a lot better,” he said. “It has made it a lot more manageable.”
According to the LePage administration, by 2013, the state paid off nearly $500 million in MaineCare debt owed to its hospitals.
Moakler said that Houlton Regional Hospital was owed $8.5 million five years ago, but that the MaineCare debt has been since been erased.
“We still struggle because of our bad debt expense,” he said, referring to the bills that hospitals have sent out to patients but have been unable to collect. “But having that MaineCare debt off of our backs helps a great deal.”
Karen Gonya, communication lead for The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle, also said the state was current with the hospital on all of its MaineCare bills. The same was true at Cary Medical Center in Caribou, according to Bill Flagg, director of community relations.
With the exception of “very few” hospitals that are still settling up bills with the state, nearly all of the hospitals in Maine have had their MaineCare debt settled and are receiving periodic interim payments, according to Jeffrey Austin, vice president of government affairs and communications for the Maine Hospital Association in Augusta.
“It seems to be working well that way,” he said Nov. 28.
