On Tuesday, the state’s Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) Board voted 5-0 to drastically cut how much seven California hospitals can spend to care for patients; this comes on top of below-inflation spending cuts for all hospitals that OHCA had already put in place.
These cuts will go into effect starting next year — a full three years ahead of the timeline established in law that was intended to ensure an intentional, informed approach.
Shortly after the vote, CHA issued a media statement denouncing the cuts. From the statement:
“The majority of Californians are outraged that Congress is considering unprecedented cuts to Medicaid and other health care funding that supports hospital care. Meanwhile, here in California, the OHCA Board is doing the exact same thing — cutting billions of dollars from health care that will lead to real pain for real people.
OHCA’s breakneck pursuit of cost-cutting — regardless of the impact on patient care — is in sharp contrast to state law. The OHCA Board has leapfrogged over the three-year effort outlined in law that was intended to ensure a thoughtful, data-driven approach to making health care more affordable for all Californians without sacrificing access and quality.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, CHA stood alongside more than 30 hospital representatives, pleading with the board to reconsider or delay a vote that would hurt patients and communities so severely. That testimony came after a letter sent earlier this month in which CHA formally requested that the proposal be withdrawn until a more balanced examination of health care cuts — and the impact they would have on patients and communities — can be conducted.
The words fell on deaf ears.
A second CHA letter asked OHCA to withdraw its proposed definition of a hospital sector and return to a more comprehensive and impartial process to create sectors that comports with statutory deadlines.
Instead, the outcome of this week’s vote is inconsistent with state law, and it unfairly targets a single class of health care providers based on unsound methodologies and anomalous data — without any of the necessary research and analysis. Most importantly it means that a handful of unelected people have cut billions from California’s health care system, endangering access to health care in communities across the state.
Even before the vote, more than 60 hospitals weighed in, explaining the severe unintended consequences should the office move forward with its proposal. Their input was also ignored.
CHA will now turn its focus toward state legislators — who must inquire, on behalf of their constituents, about the actions of a board that, in the span of several hours, arbitrarily and summarily drained billions of dollars from California’s health care system.
