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News Release
General Assistance Medical Care Weekly Report
August 21, 2009
The elimination of the General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) destroys the safety net for more than 30,000 Minnesotans who make less than $8,000 a year. As a safety net hospital, Regions will continue to care for these patients, but cutting GAMC will result in an estimated loss of $46 million during the next two years.
Because nearly all Minnesota hospitals are nonprofit, they're profit margins are a mere fraction of those of Fortune 500 companies. Last year, Regions' profit margin was only about 1 percent. The cuts to GAMC would wipe out that margin and force Regions to cut programs that serve the entire community.
To help put the impact of this loss in context, Regions has been sharing its weekly census of GAMC patients, the associated cost and, most importantly, the stories of our patients who will be impacted.
GAMC care for the week of July 20, 2009
Total GAMC patient visits 1
Emergency Room
Inpatient
Same Day Surgery
Outpatient 2
Patients with mental health conditions
Reimbursement that will be lost
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233
70
30
5
128
42
$351,323
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Since funding was cut (May)
2,660
$3.7 million
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Story of the week: Jane, age 483
Although she is only in her 40s, Jane has a number of serious health problems including congestive heart failure (CHF). Symptoms include chest pressure and shortness of breath which Jane was experiencing when she arrived at the Emergency Center at Regions Hospital. Even though she is very sick, her CHF is not severe enough to be completely disabling, so GAMC is the only coverage she qualifies for. GAMC will pay for her current hospital bill, which is over $12,000. With GAMC, Jane can also continue to get medication and appropriate outpatient care that can help avoid the need for emergency care.
1 Enrolled in GAMC or in process of enrolling
2 Outpatient visits include radiology, chemotherapy, chemical dependency, mental health and other diagnostic visits.
3 Not patient's real name or age
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