FARMINGTON – Like all hospital officials, Richard Batt is worried about the financial dangers of more cuts proposed in MaineCare funding.

Franklin Memorial Hospital is still reeling from the $6 million owed in MaineCare settlements for services rendered the past couple of years and $1.1 million slashed from its funding in 2003.

Additional cuts are proposed at nearly $350,000 for April, May and June, the president of the Farmington hospital said.

The total cut from July 1, 2004, through June 5, 2005, is $1.78 million, he said.

It’s a two-year total reduction of $2.8 million in MaineCare funding.

The hospital has a $50 million operating budget.

Batt said the state needs to address the financial crisis.

“However, the cuts cannot continue without putting Franklin Memorial Hospital at a financial risk,” Batt said.

The hospital is already the lowest reimbursed from MaineCare for its inpatient services, he said.

Franklin Memorial received on average $1,904 for its inpatient services to patients covered under the MaineCare program. The state government plans to change the way hospitals are reimbursed in the budget with all hospitals being paid a similar fee for a similar service under the MaineCare program, which Batt said he is grateful for.

But that doesn’t solve the financial dilemma of proposed cuts in funding, he said.

“That’s going to be enormously problematic to us,” Batt said. “We will have to reduce our budget. We’re going to have to lower our expenses further.”

Batt said the hospital is backed into a corner because with lower than average costs and the lowest Medicaid reimbursement in Maine, it doesn’t have room to make cuts compared to organizations that have higher costs.

He is concerned with the state planning to expand its MaineCare enrollment in July when the current system is not financially sound.

“Our commitment should be for those that we already serve,” Batt said.

Batt said he supports the effort to solve the state’s budget crisis without raising taxes because employers and residents just don’t have the capacity to pay more.

He said he has forwarded some ideas to the state for consideration in helping to solve the funding dilemma.

He thinks it’s time to come up with a more permanent solution for the health system in Maine.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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