RESERVATIONHospital could lose Medicare, state Medicaid funding after officials issue second warning

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/news/hospital-could-lose-medicare-state-medicaid-funding-after-officials-issue/article_c8b24403-15b2-5dab-a52c-6586c01ba785.html

POSTED: SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2015 12:30 AM

WINNEBAGO, Neb. (AP) — Officials have warned a northeast Nebraska hospital for the second time in two years that its Medicare and Nebraska Medicaid funding will be pulled unless the hospital adequately addresses treatment deficiencies.

Spokesman Mike Fierberg for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Friday that he couldn’t release the May survey report that led to the warning sent Wednesday to the Winnebago Indian Health Service Hospital.

But the report noted “immediate jeopardy to patients,” Fierberg said.

A spokeswoman for the Indian Health Service didn’t immediately answer questions posed by The Associated Press. A message left for a hospital representative was not immediately returned.

FULL story at link.

[procon]

1. Indian Health Service funding comes from the US government.

The idiots in Congress that gave us the sequester, they also cut the budget for health services to Indians, so why would it be surprising that these little facilities that serve very poor and rural communities are unable to meet the standard of care needed to maintain their accreditation. Add to that annual budget cuts coming out of the Republican controlled House that target services for the poor, for people of color, for services provided by Obamacare, hospitals like this are doomed.