Janice Francis-Smith
The Journal Record (Oklahoma City, OK)
Copyright 2006 Dolan Media Newswires
In 2003, the OU Medical Center was prepared to close the doors on Oklahoma’s only level-one trauma center — an emergency care center capable of handling the most severe medical problems — due to funding issues.
Three years later, the system the state devised to deal with those funding issues appears to be working quite well, reimbursing hospitals more than $15.5 million, Oklahoma Health Department officials said Thursday. The OU Medical Center and other hospitals in the state had told the Legislature they were being deluged by patients with little or no insurance, who often have no primary care physician and so tend to over-utilize emergency rooms.
The hospital turns no one in need of medical attention away and so has to absorb the cost of providing care for the indigent. Those costs had grown to the point where OU Medical Center had trouble affording the substantial cost of maintaining the superior level of care required of a level-one trauma center, hospital officials told lawmakers.
The state found a number of new funding mechanisms to help OU Medical Center and other state hospitals cover the costs of providing indigent care. One of the largest sources of funding for the program was the tobacco tax increase voters approved in November 2004. The tobacco tax was raised from 23 cents per pack to $1.03, effective Jan. 1, 2005.
Two weeks ago, hospitals, emergency medical service agencies and physicians who provide trauma care in Oklahoma were reimbursed for 100 percent of their eligible uncompensated trauma care claims for services delivered from January 2005 to June 2005, Health Department officials announced Thursday. “This is the first time the Trauma Fund has been able to reimburse dollar for dollar,” reads a release from the department.
More than 70 hospitals received a portion of $13.5 million distributed from the fund, while 423 physicians received a total of $1 million and 39 emergency medical service agencies received more than $941,000. The Trauma Fund was created in 1999, but was originally supported by a small fee on drivers licenses and boat and motor registrations.
The Aug. 31 distribution of funds marked the second time physicians got money from the fund, as well as the seventh time hospitals and emergency medical services benefited from the fund. Fifty-five percent of the total dollars recently distributed from the fund were generated from the tobacco tax increase, the department reported.