By Jim McElhatton, The Washington Times Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jul. 31--Maryland's top public health official yesterday called the D.C. health care system 'chaotic' and criticized the D.C. government's decision not to pay more than $5 million to Prince George's Hospital Center for the treatment of indigent city residents.
'Quite frankly, the District has been taking advantage of the Maryland health care system for years,' said Nelson J. Sabatini, secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
'They dump uncompensated care patients into Maryland because Maryland has a disciplined, regulated system [of reimbursement for charity care], and the District has nothing but a chaotic health care system.'
The criticism came in response to D.C. government's recent decision to refuse to pay a bill that Prince George's Hospital Center submitted in June for the treatment of indigent D.C. residents.
The Washington Times first reported Wednesday that the hospital's parent company, Cheverly-based Dimensions Healthcare System, is billing the D.C. government for treating city residents who don't pay their bills.
Company spokesman Bob Howell said Prince George's Hospital Center, which is just over the D.C. line in Cheverly, has been treating increasing numbers of indigent D.C. residents since the District closed D.C. General Hospital in June 2001.
Dimensions requested payment for the treatment of indigent city residents through the D.C. Healthcare Alliance, a $96 million city-funded insurance program for low-income individuals run through the D.C. Department of Health.
'The District government cannot provide money... for costs that were not directly provided to the city,' said Tony Bullock, a spokesman for D.C.
Mayor Anthony A. Williams. 'There is no basis to make this payment.'
Mr. Williams created the alliance program three years ago to fill the gap in health services created by the closure of D.C. General. However, city officials say the program doesn't pay providers outside of the District.
'We're sympathetic to their problems,' Mr. Bullock said, referring to Prince George's Hospital, which has lost $42 million in the past five years. 'But we can't just cut them a check.
'We had the same problem when we had D.C. General in operation, except the traffic was flowing in the other direction and tens of millions of dollars in services were being provided to non-D.C. residents,' Mr. Bullock said.
'But we never went to the county or the state of Maryland and said 'pay us for these services'.'
The District denied the payment claim in a July 14 letter to Dimensions from the District's Associate Chief Financial Officer Deloras Shepherd.
Mr. Bullock said city government can't control where residents seek hospital care. 'It isn't something that the government can monitor,' he said.
The hospital's demand for payment comes three months after Prince George's County and Maryland state officials agreed on a $45 million bailout for Dimensions, which also owns the 146-bed Laurel Regional Hospital.
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