Senator Pryor Standing Up

Congress is considering it again. Medicare payments to local hospitals could once again become the piggybank used to pay for other programs.

In the last three years alone, Congress has cut hospitals nationwide by over $95 billion, and that is on top of more than $300 billion in cuts over the next 10 years already in law. At Northwest Health System, our caregivers, nurses and doctors are committed to doing more with less. We will meet the needs of the community and provide the highest quality care. 

But it is more important than ever that Congress understands that bad policy and misguided decisions in Washington could have terrible implications back home. These cuts will hurt beneficiaries and must stop. 

That is why I applaud Sen. Mark Pryor for vigorously opposing any further cuts to the Medicare backstop. The Medicare backstop, created in 1966 and commonly referred to as “Medicare bad debt,” is the financial protection for many of the seniors we care for at Northwest Health System.

It ensures access to quality hospital care for our seniors, even when they cannot pay their share of costs, which is set by law of the federal government. There is a very real threat of cuts to the backstop, the latest in a series of significant cuts to your local hospital.

And it is not only patients who are supported by the backstop; our caregivers can focus solely on their important work if they know they will never have to turn a Medicare patient away because they cannot afford their care. 

Unfortunately, some in Washington have proposed cutting this important program. But Sen. Pryor is standing up for our community and our patients to protect the Medicare backstop. If Sen. Pryor is successful, we will be one step closer to ensuring we can continue to meet the needs of our community.  Let’s hope that Congress gets it right. 

Dan McKay is CEO of Northwest Health System in Springdale. He can be reached at 479-751-5711.