Illinois Health Policy Update

Today, January 31, 2012, is the beginning of Spring Legislative Session for Illinois lawmakers. Facing a backlog of bills totaling $8.5 billion -- $2 billion in Medicaid bills alone -- it is certain that legislators will spend the next four months looking for creative ways to increase revenue and cut costs.


Governor Quinn will deliver his State of the State speech at noon on Wednesday, Feb. 1. Three weeks later, on Feb. 22, Quinn will deliver his budget address. All of us who work for Illinois hospitals will be listening carefully for messages related to two important issues:

Not-for-profit hospitals' tax-exempt status
With a state government that is financially strapped, some leaders in Springfield are revisiting the idea of removing the property tax-exemption that not-for-profit hospitals receive. This would have devastating financial consequences for Illinois hospitals. Losing the tax exemption would almost certainly result in the loss of jobs as well as critical health care services that are expensive to provide.

Our tax exemption is an acknowledgment by the state that we provide charity care, community health programs and specialized services that the government has neither the expertise nor the resources to provide on its own.

Medicaid rate cuts to hospitals

We expect that the Governor will point to the Medicaid system and say that spending is out of control. It's assumed that the Governor introduce the idea of rate reform, which could translate to "funding cut" to hospitals. He is also expected to praise the "Innovations Project," launched Jan. 24, which is hoped to shift an estimated 50 percent of the low-income Medicaid population into coordinated care programs by the year 2015.

It's important to note that Medicaid enrollment has doubled in Illinois over the past 20 years. Currently, Illinois hospitals wait 150 days for payment from the state for care provided to Medicaid patients.