ICHS is calling upon state lawmakers to protect Basic Health, which is a state safety net that provides medical insurance to low-income people not eligible for Medicaid. ICHS also backs state support for multilingual interpretation for patients and other health services.
As of Sept. 30, 2011, ICHS had 2,284 patients who are Basic Health enrollees. If Basic Health is eliminated in January 2012, ICHS would see a projected shortfall of about $800,000. This takes into account projected revenue for 2012.
If Basic Health dollars from Olympia are cut, these 2,284 people would become uninsured “self-pay” patients. As a federally qualified health care center, ICHS does not decline services to people.
In the year-to-date period for 2011, 30 percent of medical and dental patients at ICHS are uninsured. In 2010, about 20 percent of ICHS patients were medically uninsured and 16 percent were Basic Health enrollees. The rate difference for the medically uninsured, from 20 percent to 36 percent, is 80 percent.
For more information, visit www.ichs.com.