Sequester Could Impact Maryland Hospital Rates, Medicare Waiver

Maryland’s Health Services Cost Review Commission will be taking up an important topic at its next monthly meeting: How to brace the state’s hospital system for a blow to Medicare payments.

The federal sequester calls for a 2 percent cut in Medicare spending that will hit every state and has hospital executives across the U.S. thinking about their budgets. But in Maryland health care leaders have one more thing to worry about — the state’s Medicare waiver. The state has already been toeing the line of breaking the terms of its waiver, which requires Maryland to keep growth in Medicare costs below national growth, and a 2 percent Medicare cut could worsen the situation.

The Health Services Cost Review Commission was scheduled to meet Wednesday but cancelled the meeting in anticipation of a snowstorm headed to Maryland. When the group does meet next, they’ll be discussing a brief report put together by commission staff that suggests the state could minimize the damage to its waiver by letting hospitals take a hit. That’s rather than allowing them to push off some of the sequester cut to payers — and potentially to consumers — through increased rates.
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