Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad's proposed budget doesn't include any of the $6 million University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics requested to offset annual costs the hospital bears caring for prisoners and others in state custody.
Documents show the Iowa Board of Regents unsuccessfully introduced a similar appropriations request before the 2014 and 2015 legislative sessions.
The regents' appropriations request approved in September argues, “Expecting UI Health Care to assume financial responsibility associated with the state’s obligation to provide inmates and other residents of state institutions with adequate medical treatment represents a growing challenge to Iowa’s only comprehensive academic medical center.”
The governor’s budget released Tuesday also recommended $0 for UIHC’s requests of $300,000 for a pilot program linking psychiatry and primary care doctors, $4.5 million in state appropriations for the Center for Disabilities and Development and $10 million to help fund medical residency programs within the state. Overall, the governor's budget recommended $20.8 million less than UIHC requested in appropriations for FY 2017.
“As Gov. Branstad outlined in his speech (Tuesday), the avian influenza, lower commodity prices and an ever increasing world economy have given us a very tight budget to work with,” gubernatorial spokesman Ben Hammes said via email Wednesday night. “Gov. Branstad is pleased to be able to put together once again a stable, predictable budget for Iowans.”
Per state law, UIHC provides health care to inmates of the Department of Corrections and people who reside in Department of Human Services facilities, according to the request. The value of that treatment, using Iowa Medicaid rates, ranges between $5 million and $7 million annually.
The board’s request to reimburse UIHC follows an eight-year-old recommendation from a working group convened to address the issue.
“Funding equal to the costs associated with the provision of care to state institution patients, drawing from sources not currently available to the Board of Regents, Carver College of Medicine, Department of Corrections, Department of Human Services, or the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, must be found,” the working group concluded in a 2008 report.
Hammes, however, said “there have been ongoing discussions between the hospital and the Department of Corrections but nothing has been determined or finalized.”
Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the DOC, said the department "stands behind the governor's office."
The governor’s budget, for the most part, called for maintaining regent line items at their current funding level, while adding an additional $8 million for the regents to use as they see fit.
The recommended increase was much less than the $20 million the regents were seeking for the general operating expenses of the three public universities, and lawmakers say they are unlikely to hand over $8 million in public money without specifying where and how it will be used.
Regent officials have said they remain optimistic that a compromise will be found.
“The session has just begun, and this is a long process,” regents spokesman Josh Lehman said Wednesday. “The board is going to continue to work with the governor and the Legislature.”
UIHC spokesman Tom Moore said he had nothing to add to Lehman's comment.
http://www.press-citizen.com/story/...s-state-reimburse-prisoner-expenses/78800012/
Documents show the Iowa Board of Regents unsuccessfully introduced a similar appropriations request before the 2014 and 2015 legislative sessions.
The regents' appropriations request approved in September argues, “Expecting UI Health Care to assume financial responsibility associated with the state’s obligation to provide inmates and other residents of state institutions with adequate medical treatment represents a growing challenge to Iowa’s only comprehensive academic medical center.”
The governor’s budget released Tuesday also recommended $0 for UIHC’s requests of $300,000 for a pilot program linking psychiatry and primary care doctors, $4.5 million in state appropriations for the Center for Disabilities and Development and $10 million to help fund medical residency programs within the state. Overall, the governor's budget recommended $20.8 million less than UIHC requested in appropriations for FY 2017.
“As Gov. Branstad outlined in his speech (Tuesday), the avian influenza, lower commodity prices and an ever increasing world economy have given us a very tight budget to work with,” gubernatorial spokesman Ben Hammes said via email Wednesday night. “Gov. Branstad is pleased to be able to put together once again a stable, predictable budget for Iowans.”
Per state law, UIHC provides health care to inmates of the Department of Corrections and people who reside in Department of Human Services facilities, according to the request. The value of that treatment, using Iowa Medicaid rates, ranges between $5 million and $7 million annually.
The board’s request to reimburse UIHC follows an eight-year-old recommendation from a working group convened to address the issue.
“Funding equal to the costs associated with the provision of care to state institution patients, drawing from sources not currently available to the Board of Regents, Carver College of Medicine, Department of Corrections, Department of Human Services, or the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, must be found,” the working group concluded in a 2008 report.
Hammes, however, said “there have been ongoing discussions between the hospital and the Department of Corrections but nothing has been determined or finalized.”
Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the DOC, said the department "stands behind the governor's office."
The governor’s budget, for the most part, called for maintaining regent line items at their current funding level, while adding an additional $8 million for the regents to use as they see fit.
The recommended increase was much less than the $20 million the regents were seeking for the general operating expenses of the three public universities, and lawmakers say they are unlikely to hand over $8 million in public money without specifying where and how it will be used.
Regent officials have said they remain optimistic that a compromise will be found.
“The session has just begun, and this is a long process,” regents spokesman Josh Lehman said Wednesday. “The board is going to continue to work with the governor and the Legislature.”
UIHC spokesman Tom Moore said he had nothing to add to Lehman's comment.
http://www.press-citizen.com/story/...s-state-reimburse-prisoner-expenses/78800012/
