Funds for Navicent Health's indigent care left out of commission's revised budget

Macon-Bibb County buses and libraries are still operating thanks to changes in the budget made Tuesday, but not all outside agencies got the funding they had hoped for.

After a contentious vote Tuesday night, commissioners voted not to grant a proposed $451,000 for indigent care to Navicent Health. The funding would only account for a small fraction of Navicent’s annual budget, but some worry that the implications could be broad.

“It’s going to do harm to not only Navicent’s efforts to gain grant funding, but also it’s going to harm the ability of our community to provide adequate indigent care,” Commissioner Elaine Lucas said Thursday. She advocated on behalf of funding Navicent at the meeting and was disappointed by the commission’s decision to leave the health provider out of the new budget.

“I think it says to all of those thousands of employees of Navicent that there’s a disregard by government for the work that they do and for the services provided to our indigent citizens,” Lucas said. “I think it says to other funding sources that the government is not sensitive to health care in the community.”

Navicent, a not-for-profit organization, provided more than $95.5 million in uncompensated care in fiscal year 2017, according to a statement it provided to The Telegraph. The hospital relies on a variety of funding sources to cover the costs of providing health care for those who can’t afford to pay for it themselves. Nikki Randall, Navicent's assistant vice president, urged commissioners during the meeting this week to contribute to the hospital’s funding pool, even just a minimal amount.

“Help us to help ourselves to continue to help this community,” she said.

When hospitals like Navicent apply for grants, potential funders often look at the hospital's records to see how much money they receive from their local government, which signals community support, Randall said. The county’s decision not to include Navicent in the budget could deter funders from financing the hospital in the future, setting off a snowball effect of loss of resources. Even a small amount of money from the county could prevent that.

“It gives us a better opportunity to get help from other agencies and from grants and from the state expanding and increasing our reimbursement if the county does show some skin in the game,” she said Tuesday.

Though the county has only funded a small portion of Navicent’s indigent care in the past, its support also serves a symbolic purpose, Lucas said. Withdrawing that support sends a message to the community.

“It says to our citizens that we value some things over health delivery,” she said.

Indigent care covers the health care costs of uninsured patients not eligible for Medicaid. About 240,000 Georgia residents don’t have insurance, making it the state with the fifth-highest uninsured rate in the country, according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. It’s also one of only 17 states that hasn’t opted to expand Medicaid, a decision that will likely only continue to widen the coverage gap. For local patients who earn above the cutoff to receive Medicaid but not enough to buy insurance, indigent care services are essential.

“There are so many people who are sick in our community and so many people who are under served already,” Lucas said. “So I think it is unwise for us to take the position of decreasing our support for healthcare.”

Samantha Max is a Report for America corps member and reports for The Telegraph with support from the News/CoLab at Arizona State University. Follow her on Facebook at facebook.com/samantha.max.9 and on Twitter @samanthaellimax. Learn more about Report for America at www.reportforamerica.org.

This story was originally published July 5, 2018 at 6:55 PM.