If implemented, the sequester also would make several reductions to other healthcare programs. For instance, the National Institutes of Health would see payment cuts totaling $2.5 billion in fiscal 2013. ÂThe National Institutes of Health would have to halt or curtail scientific research, including needed research into cancer and childhood diseases, according to the report. Meanwhile, about $464 million would be cut from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, $66 million from grants set aside for the health insurance exchanges, and about $27 million from community health centers.
[...]
The brief report from Tripp Umbach tallies job losses projected in healthcare, as well as jobs that would be lost in industries that sell goods and services to healthcare organizations and still more that would be lost because those laid-off workers spend less money. In 2021, the report estimates 330,127 fewer direct-effect jobs in healthcare from the reductions.
Mike Harrington, chief accounting officer and controller at the Cleveland Clinic, said the report Âpaints an extreme picture and placed the 2% Medicare cut in perspective for the system.
ÂOur organization is a $6 billion company. The sequestration impact on us is about $22 million, Harrington said in an interview. ÂIt's not like 10%. It's a couple tenths of a percent of our revenue stream, he said. ÂWhen you look at our overall cash flow, it's a little bigger piece, but still less than 5% of our overall cash flow.Â
Several other financial pressures are cause for concern, Harrington said, such as private insurance companies shifting more costs to patients through higher deductibles, coinsurance or copayments, meaning lower revenue for the system as patients often find it difficult to pay and providers end up writing off the amounts as bad debt.
In face of the mandatory cuts, the Cleveland Clinic will continue to do what it has done to streamline operations. For instance, the system made significant changes to its supply-chain procedures that saved about $100 million in expenses in the past 2½ years.
ÂThat is from surgical procedure to laundry to environmentalÂeverything nonpersonnel related, Harrington said. ÂWe had a variety of food-service vendors, and we've now consolidated that to one vendor and saved millions of dollars on that one transaction.Â
But it's all Obamacare's fault. Yup.
<sigh>
Cheers,
Scott.