LCRH CEO: Health care system needs to change, but ...

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July 8, 2009

By HEATHER PYLES, CJ Staff Writer The Commonwealth Journal Wed Jul 08, 2009, 08:26 PM EDT

Overhauling a nation’s health care system is no small task, but nearly everyone is in agreement that changes have to be made.

“Everybody wants the system to improve,” said Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital CEO Jeff Seraphine on Wednesday. “They want it to be more affordable, they want it to make more sense, be of a better quality.”

But the mutual feelings end there. Lawmakers are feverishly working to pull in compromises from industry leaders — including the American Hospital Association, or AHA, an organization that represents and serves all hospitals and health care networks, and their patients and customers.

That includes LCRH, which, like other health care providers, will be significantly impacted by whatever plan makes it through Congress.

“Everybody has to be at the table willing to give up something to make this work,” Seraphine said.

This week, Vice President Joe Biden announced that the nation’s hospitals agreed to give up $155 billion in future government payouts to help counterbalance the significant cost of President Barack Obama’s overhaul plan.

“That $155 billion is a compromise,” Seraphine said. “They (lawmakers) initially came out with more than $200 billion.”

That agreement came after lawmakers conceded to not push for deeper cuts that had been in discussions.

And, perhaps more importantly, hospitals also won an understanding that should a public health insurance plan be included in the overhaul, it would reimburse hospitals at above the rates Medicare and Medicaid pay.

Seraphine said LCRH, like most hospitals, receives approximately 70 percent to 72 percent of its revenues through Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Those rates are quickly becoming insufficient in the face of rising health care costs.

“It’s not just Somerset,” Seraphine said. “It’s across the health care system.”

And the AHA is worried that a public health care program — should it be included in the overhaul — could prove to be a catastrophe for the health care system.

“The idea of a government plan that encourages more people to join that plan that pays government rates would be disastrous,” Seraphine said. “We then actually become more dependent ... on government programs.”

Those concerns are behind the AHA’s pursuit that any public plan come with negotiable rates — not pre-set rates that will essentially be the same as current Medicare and Medicaid rates.

Seraphine emphasized that the plan is still in the beginning stages of the lawmaking process — and he said no amount of compromises will help push a plan through that may still come with an exorbitant price tag.

“If it (the overhaul plan) still has a trillion dollar price tag, how can anybody bite that apple?” Seraphine asked.

As lawmakers continue to hash out the details to what Seraphine called “the most complicated issue that they’re going to take up there,” the idea still remains that something has to be done.

“It’s very difficult,” Seraphine said. “It’s very complex.

“There’s a lot of forces of change up there,” he added.

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Pulaski carries Girdler to win

In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s primary election, it was impossible to miss the colorful signs dotting nearly every Pulaski roadway. The names in the race for the 15th State Senatorial District seat popped out: A.C. Donahue. Chris Girdler. Mark Polston.

Once citizens hit the ballots, however, the results mirrored the dimensions of the signs themselves: Chris Girdler stood the tallest.

Girdler, deputy district director for Congressman Harold “Hal” Rogers, ran away with the votes inside Pulaski County’s borders, earning 3,926 votes for 62.05 percent of the total number cast.

That number more than doubled the next highest vote-getter, businessman Mark Polston, who raked in 1,624 votes for 25.67 percent.

However, Polston — who owns Classic Carpet, a home-flooring business located just off the southern 914 bypass — can claim a moral victory ... three of them, in fact. In all three counties in the district other than Pulaski — those being Adair, Casey, and Russell Counties — Polston actually edged out Girdler.

In Adair, Polston beat Girdler 629 to 394. In Casey County, it was 538 to 417, and in Russell, it was 1,862 to 1,038.

Polston said he just “couldn’t pull it out with the numbers” and that “the machine worked for” Girdler in Pulaski County.

“I think that was their strategy — I think they had a Pulaski County strategy all along,” said Polston. “They played the political game well.”

Polston said the difference between his and Girdler’s campaigns was that “mine was a very, very grass roots campaign,” he said. “I did not have a political machine behind me. I understand how this process works, and in this instance, he prevailed.”

As for why Girdler didn’t take three of four counties, the winning candidate — since there are no Democrats in the race, winning the Republican primary was effectively a final victory for Girdler — said he didn’t have an answer for that.

However, “I believe things happen for a reason and I hope the long and strenuous campaign will only heighten my desire to move beyond the bitterness and partisanship of the recent past,” said Girdler.

“Regionalism is a goal of mine, and I look forward to helping all four counties,” he added, noting that he campaigned heavily in each of them.

Sen. Vernie McGaha, the long-time state senator whose seat the candidates were vying for, actually supported Polston after Liberty’s Todd Hoskins dropped out of the race earlier this month.

Donahue, a local attorney, got 556 votes in Pulaski County, 8.79 percent of the vote. He only received 145 votes in Russell County, 74 in Adair County, and 75 in Casey County, where hometown candidate Hoskins almost matched him with 71 votes despite no longer being officially in the race.

Polston said he’s “still digesting” what happened, and though “the process has been a very good experience for me,” he wouldn’t commit to running again in the future. “I wouldn’t shut the door to anything, but I’m not opening any doors either.”

Still, “I think I got a lot of people involved in the process that had not been involved before and would not have been otherwise,” he said. “A lot of people got out and worked really hard, got motivated to talk to friends and neighbors. I think a lot of people became involved through this campaign that are going to be involved for a long time.”

Girdler stressed his “positive message” and said that Rogers is a “mentor and good friend” that he would turn to for advice in dealing with a frequently combative legislative body in Frankfort, one for which Girdler hopes to help change the culture.

Girdler said that he was “confident and optimistic” during the day Tuesday because he’d “worked extremely hard.” Nevertheless, the realization that he’d won gave him “chill bumps,” he said.

“I’m absolutely honored,” said Girdler. “The position of state senator is more than an honor, more than an office. It’s a charge to keep, and I will give it my all.

“I pledge to be the people’s state senator,” he added. “I look forward to working with everyone to move this region forward.”

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