Feds to pay part of cost of illegals’ care at YRMC

Blake Schmidt:

Yuma Regional Medical Center will receive more than $1 million annually in federal funds to help cover the estimated $2 million the hospital spends each year by giving uncompensated care to illegal immigrants, a hospital official said.

Paying patients are the ones footing the bill for uncompensated illegal immigrant care, a cost that is "eating into" the nonprofit hospital's potential to grow and expand its services, said Pat Walz, YRMC chief financial officer.

Under a new federal program, $1 billion over four years will be allocated to reimburse hospitals nationwide, plus certain physicians and ambulance providers for emergency services provided to illegal immigrants, according to Walz.

He estimated that Yuma will receive about half of what the hospital pays each year for uncompensated illegal immigrant health care, a projection he based on Arizona's allocated portion of the funds.

The estimated annual cost to hospitals and other providers of emergency health care nationwide for illegal aliens — mandated but not funded by the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) — is $1.45 billion, according to congressionally commissioned research from the MTG Corporation.

Due to the new program, YRMC has been keeping better track of services furnished to illegal immigrants, Walz said.

Now the hospital is allowed to ask about a patient's nationality on admission forms, although Walz admitted there is no guarantee a patient is telling the truth.

The admission form survey question is to be used only as a way for hospitals to measure the amount of care they provide to illegal immigrants in order to draw the federal funds from the program.

Hospitals are still required under EMTALA to provide services regardless of legal status.

Walz said that according to admission forms, the YRMC served 42 illegal immigrants in June.

"Generally, illegal immigrants don't pay," Walz said. "They often give a false address and it can be very hard to collect money from them."

Under the new program, reimbursements may be made for services given to undocumented aliens, aliens in the United States who are eligible to receive services, and Mexican citizens permitted to enter the United States for up to 30 days with their border crossing ID cards, Walz said.

The funds will be effective for care given on or after May 10. YRMC will not begin receiving funds until 2006, Walz said.

The funds will be allocated as a part of the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2004, Section 1011, which was authored by U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

Walz based his $2 million estimate on the hospital's findings after following up on patients who didn't pay their bills last year.

The estimate was made for patients that gave false information and whose addresses were tracked to Mexico.

Walz's estimate comes after news that nearly one in three babies born in Yuma County in 2002 were born to illegal immigrant mothers, according to a recent report by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that pushes for anti-immigration policy. The rate is the highest in all of Arizona and among the highest in the country.

Machele Headington, community relations specialist at YRMC, said $2 million is a relatively small number, compared to the "overall picture." She estimated that the hospital spends between $12 and $15 million each year on uncompensated care for everyone — legal and illegal immigrants and U.S. citizens. Walz said the hospital's annual operating budget is around $200 million.

But Dr. Sultan Lalani, president of the Yuma County Medical Society, said the emergency care provided to illegal immigrants is an expensive cost.

"It is expensive care, but they don't receive much preventative care that should be given (that) would prevent a lot of the expensive emergency care," he said.

Dr. Dale Webb, a YRMC surgeon and former hospital district board and operating board chairman, said he knows of many cases of Mexican nationals coming to the United States to receive health services free of charge.

"To them it's a joke. They come up knowing they don't have to pay for health care," he said.

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