Starting in 2028, both UK HealthCare and UofL Health will sustain a 10 percent cut to the supplemental payments — which go to university hospitals, ambulance providers, and private hospitals to increase reimbursement rates to the average commercial insurance rate.
Mark Birdwhistell, Senior Vice President for Health and Public Policy at UK, gave lawmakers his most optimistic take Tuesday on what might happen to the provision in the reconciliation package signed into law on July 4.
"What is in law for 2028 hopefully will never materialize," he said. "I've seen multiple, multiple reconciliation bills in my tenure — 45-plus years. Many of these start out as a direction of where things need to go, but very often they never turn out to be the destination."
But if they do, Birdwhistell estimated it could cost UK roughly $100 million annually. UofL figured their loss at about $75 million.
State Rep. Karen Berg, a physician, worried aloud about cascading effects.
"I will pray with you that something is done because there is no way that our healthcare systems can sustain this amount of depletion of funds in the future. It will not survive," she said.
Birdwhistell said he feels the hospital systems have the support of Kentucky Congressman Brett Guthrie, who chairs the House Committee on Commerce and Energy, which oversees healthcare. He said there are discussions underway about what he termed "creative alternatives."