The General Assembly finds that:
(1) There are citizens who cannot afford to pay for hospital care because of inadequate financial resources or catastrophic medical expenses.
(2) Rising health care costs and the growth of the medically indigent population have increased the strains on the health care system with a growing burden on the hospital industry, health insurance companies, and paying patients.
(3) This burden has affected businesses, which are large purchasers of health care services through employee insurance benefits, and taxpayers in counties which support public hospitals, and it causes the cost of services provided to paying patients to increase in a manner unrelated to the actual cost of services delivered to them.
(4) Hospitals which provide the bulk of unreimbursed services cannot compete economically with hospitals which provide relatively little care to indigent persons.
(5) Because of the complexity of the health care system, any effort to resolve the problem of paying for care for medically indigent persons must be multifaceted and shall include at least four general principles:
(a) Funds must be made available to assure continued access to quality health care for medically indigent patients.
(b) Cost containment measures and competitive incentives must be placed into the health care system along with the additional funds.
(c) The cost of providing indigent care must be equitably borne by the State, the counties, and the providers of care.
(d) State residents must be guaranteed access to emergency medical care regardless of their ability to pay or county of residence.
It is the intent of the General Assembly to:
(1) assure care for the largest possible number of its medically indigent citizens within funds available by:
(a) expanding the number of persons eligible for Medicaid services, using additional state and county funds to take advantage of matching federal funds;
(b) creating a fund based on provider and local government contributions to provide medical assistance to those citizens who do not qualify for Medicaid or any other government assistance and who do not have the means to pay for hospital care; and
(c) mandating access to emergency medical care for all state residents in need of the care;
(2) Provide incentives for cost containment to providers of care to indigent patients by implementing a prospective payment system in the Medicaid and Medically Indigent Assistance Fund programs;
(3) monitor efforts to foster competition in the health care market place while being prepared to make adjustments in the system through regulatory intervention if needed;
(4) promote market reforms, as the single largest employer in the State, by structuring its health insurance program to encourage healthy lifestyles and prudent use of medical services; and
(5) reduce where possible or maintain the current rate schedules of hospitals to keep costs from escalating.
HISTORY: 1985 Act No. 201, Part II, Section 19 (preamble).