Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 3 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
Suppose you accepted a job
with the understanding that it paid $10 per hour, but when you received your paycheck, you found that your wages had been calculated based on a rate of $7 per hour.
What would your reaction be? Chances are you would be pretty upset, even outraged. You would think that your employer had not held up his end of the bargain.
That sense of frustration and unfairness is what Virginia hospitals have been experiencing for years.
Currently, the state pays them 71 percent of the cost of providing inpatient care to individuals covered by Virginia’s health care program for the elderly, the mentally and physically disabled and children. Nursing homes suffer a similar fate because, on average, state payments to them fall short by $12.50 per day per patient.
These underpayments occur despite the existence of formulas that determine how much the state should pay hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers for the services they deliver.
In reality, the payments received depend on how much the state is willing to spend on these programs, as opposed to how much they actually cost.
The repeated failure of the state to adequately fund the Medicaid program not only hurts Virginia’s less fortunate citizens, but all of us as well.
96.4%