The Kerry Kickback

[B-Man]

The Kerry Kickback:Senator Secures $3.5 Billion Windfall for Massachusetts Hospitals

BY: Andrew Stiles - February 15, 2012

 

Massachusetts hospitals are poised to receive a $3.5 billion windfall in federal funding over the next 10 years thanks to a little-known provision Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) inserted into the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act, also known as “Obamacare.”

 

The increased funding—$367 million a year in the form of Medicare reimbursement payments, according to the Federal Register—would not only come at the expense of hospitals in the 49 other states, but would also directly benefit an organization that has given generously to Kerry’s campaign.

 

The obscure policy change was formally approved by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in July 2011. It was prompted by a small, 15-bed hospital located on the upscale island of Nantucket, a popular vacation spot for wealthy New Englanders where Kerry and his wife own a $9 million waterfront home.

 

Nantucket Cottage Hospital, which had been operating under a special “critical access” status, sought a number of years ago to be reclassified as a “rural” hospital. The CMS approved the change for fiscal year 2012—a minor adjustment on paper, but one with profound implications.

 

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established a “rural floor” for hospital labor costs (which are used to determine reimbursement rates) mandating that hospitals in urban areas within a given state cannot be paid less than those in rural areas.

 

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The company, through its board members and top executives, has given generously the Kerry and other Democrats over the years. Since 2007, Partner’s employees have contributed more than $26,000 to the senator’s campaign, and are collectively his 16th biggest donor over the current cycle.

 

President and CEO Dr. Gary Gottlieb has given more than $45,000 to Democratic candidates and committees since 2007, including $5,300 to Kerry, according to a database maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics. Partners board chairman Jack Connors Jr. has given more than $42,000 to Democrats during that same period.

 

Members of the group’s board have given generously, and almost exclusively, to Democrats, including tens of thousands to Kerry. Four Partners board members in particular—Anne Finucane, Charles Gifford, Edward Lawrence, and Dorothy Terrell—have collectively contributed more than $200,000 to Democrats since 2007 and nearly $15,000 to Kerry.

 

Copp declined to say whether this flow of money was indicative of corporate-political cronyism at work. “Those are personal donations, and I cannot speak to them,” he told the Washington Free Beacon in an email.

 

Partners also maintains an active presence in Washington, D.C., having spent approximately $4.4 million on lobbying since 2008.

 

The new policy has drawn the ire of hospital associations in other states, which recently petitioned the White House to overturn to the change in policy. “If I could think of a better word than outrageous, I would come up with it,” Steve Brenton, president of the Wisconsin Hospital Association, told the Associated Press in response to the new rule. Herb Kuhn, president of the Missouri Hospital Association, said the Massachusetts windfall was an example of “how to manipulate the payment system.”

 

Because the amendment required that such payment adjustments be budget neutral at the federal level—meaning all increases for one state must be offset with reductions elsewhere—hospitals in the 49 other states will collectively lose about $367 million in annual Medicare payments to offset the additional funding for Massachusetts.

 

“This … provision permitted the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to manipulate the federal Medicare program, reaping an estimated $367 million annually from the other 49 states—unfairly favoring one state’s hospitals and Medicare beneficiaries to the detriment of others,” a coalition of 19 state hospital associations wrote in a Jan. 18, 2012 letter to President Obama. “Scarce Medicare funding should reward value and efficiency in health care, not be diverted based on artful manipulation of obscure payment formulas.”

 

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CMS actually passed a rule in 2009 explicitly designed to prevent any one state from exploiting the system to their benefit, by making reimbursement adjustment budget neutral at the state rather than federal level. The Kerry-sponsored amendment, however, overturned the rule

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Andrew Stiles

 

Some animals are more equal than others.

 

I'm remembering the righteous indignation they laid on anyone who questioned this bill.

 

This was about taking care of the working poor. This was about covering the uninsured and people with pre existing conditions. This was because we are a great nation and great nations pass legislation like this. Premiums were going to go down. The deficit would go down. Seas would calm. Sweet breezes will blow......................................

 

 

Meanwhile back in the real world we were dealing with the realization that people were getting fired and laid off in shocking numbers.

Kerry and friends were taking care of their more equal buddies.

Pelosi was parading across the grounds with a polo mallet.

 

 

Then you flip to the stimulus mess. How many green companies we funded are belly up now? Every week we discover another political contributer associated with recieving federal "stimulus money"...........after all; its the Chicago way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the way, to be really petty , if you click on the link and check out Sen. Kerry's picture..........it sure seems that his recent "ice hockey accident" removes bags under one's eyes........................... Who knew?

 

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The Democratic Congress didn't know what was in the Bill until Congressional Democrats voted for it