Hospitals are trying to formulate contingency plans in case the Supreme Court decides, in response to a Republican-inspired lawsuit, to end insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act in most of America.The revenue gains that hospitals have gotten from having a a big increase in insured patients from the ACA will disappear if subsidies for people who buy health plans from the federal exchange disappear.
“The uncertainty and the instability make it difficult for systems just to plan,” Mike Lappin, the chief administrative officer for Aurora (Wis.) Healthcare, told Modern Healthcare.
”Nonetheless, the health system’s leaders will attempt to game out multiple scenarios in the months between Wednesday’s oral arguments and the decision expected in June.
”That will include coming up with a strategy to communicate with the estimated 48,000 patients who received premium subsidies through the state’s federally run insurance exchange,” Mr. Lappin told Modern Healthcare.
A rejection of subsidies ”could threaten credit ratings for not-for-profit health systems, credit rating agencies have warned. On the for-profit side, however, analysts have estimated the loss of subsidies would jeopardize less than 4% of pre-tax earnings,” the publication reported.
