HOSPITALS, DOCS PROTEST REGS; HEALTH-CARE OPINIONS EXPRESSED AT CAPE FORUM

Hospital officials and doctors told U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson Wednesday that they would like to perform major surgery on federal laws and regulations that tie their hands in serving the region's patients.

But public health officials said government shouldn't slash funding for public health centers.

Charlotte Craig, who directs the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center, said such centers provide a "safety net" for those who can't afford to pay for medical care.

Emerson agreed: "You can't cut people off at the knees."

Forty-six doctors, hospital administrators and public health officials met with Emerson at the Show Me Center in what was billed as a health-care advisory forum. Emerson held a similar forum in Rolla on Monday.

The Cape Girardeau Republican has championed more affordable and accessible health care for rural America since being elected to Congress last year.

"Obviously, we want to try to keep government out of your lives as much as possible," she said.

Emerson criticized a provision in a new federal law that allows the government to use Medicare dollars to pay teaching hospitals to train fewer doctors.

The assumption is that there are too many doctors in some urban areas. But Emerson said it doesn't make sense to train fewer doctors when there is a need for more physicians in rural areas.

"It is the most stupid thing I have ever heard of," she told a reporter as she left to catch a plane back to Washington.

The provision was included in the balanced-budget bill approved by Congress. Emerson hopes to get that provision removed when Congress reconvenes.

Emerson is one of the leaders of the Rural Health Care Coalition, a group of about 145 House members that want to improve rural health care.

She said it is difficult at times for patients to get in to see their regular doctor. She said her mother-in-law recently needed to go to the doctor, but was informed that her physician was all booked up that day. Emerson said her mother-in-law ended up going to the doctor's office anyway and was finally seen.

Emerson said Congress needs to "start from scratch" in developing a better health-care system.

Hospital officials said many doctors no longer will accept Medicaid patients. As a result, they end up in hospital emergency rooms.

The federal anti-dumping law prohibits hospitals from turning away patients even though emergency rooms often provide a more costly level of care than a patient needs, hospital officials said.

One man suggested that doctors should be required to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients in order to get hospital privileges.

The administrator of Doctors Regional Medical Center in Poplar Bluff said the federal government has engaged in heavy-handed tactics against hospitals in the name of uncovering Medicare billing fraud.

Daniel Kelly, the hospital administrator, said federal agents have gone through billing records at some of the nation's hospitals.

Kelly said the government can levy heavy fines on hospitals for even inadvertent billing errors.

As a result, hospitals often find it better to simply pay an agreed-upon amount up front, he said.

"It is simply highway robbery," Kelly said.