Panel Backs Organ Transplants

December 2, 2003

CASPER WY (AP) - Legislators voted to send several health-related bills to the upcoming budget session, including one that would expand the state's Medicaid program to cover organ transplants.

One of the other bills approved Monday would try to address the state's nursing shortage by providing financial incentives to hospitals.

Iris Oleske, Medicaid agent for the state Department of Health, told legislators that Wyoming is the only state that does not have bone marrow and kidney transplants in its program.

And it also is one of only four states that do not cover liver transplants. The others are Montana, Nevada and South Dakota.

As a result, people ages 21-64 in Wyoming who are eligible for Medicaid do not qualify for organ transplant coverage, she said.

''You know how I feel about this,'' Oleske told the Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Interim Committee. ''It's important that we provide the best practices we can to people.''

The proposed bill has a budget request of $458,000 from the general fund for the next two years. That would pay for four transplants each year, which is statistically on the high side, Oleske said.

The bill gives the state Medicaid office the authority to set medical eligibility criteria for people in need of bone marrow and kidney transplants.

Oleske said she would not develop criteria for heart or liver transplant cases until a need arose.

Only Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, and Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, voted against the bill, citing cost concerns.

But Rep. Ann Robinson, D-Casper, praised the bill.

''If we can make them healthy again and make them have productive lives, we'll definitely get payback from them that may far exceed the cost to the state,'' she said.

Tim Kingston, a Cheyenne resident whose daughter moved to Colorado in order to get Medicaid transplant coverage five years ago, said he was happy the bill moved forward.

Legislators also supported a bill that will raise a hospital's Medicaid reimbursement rates to 100 percent of allowable costs if the hospital takes part in a patient care improvement or staff retention program.

Oleske estimated that most hospitals in the state have an 80 percent reimbursement rate for inpatients and a 46 percent rate for outpatient services.

But because the quality improvement programs are costly and have lots of requirements, it's not likely that all hospitals would be able to take part right away, Oleske added.

Case questioned why the committee was trying to tie reimbursement rates to the programs and voted against it.

Lobbyist Tom Jones of the Wyoming Healthcare Association also said he was concerned that the state was inserting itself in between labor and management.

But Sen. Mike Massie, D-Laramie, argued that the money was an incentive that would make hospitals in the state consider the programs, which may help the state keep more nurses by improving work environments.

''We're looking for a way we can encourage these kinds of changes in Wyoming so we can be competitive,'' he said.

Dan Perdue, vice president of the Wyoming Hospital Association, said that many hospitals in the state already are pursuing versions of the improvement programs.

Copyright © 2003 Caspar Star Tribune.

This article posted January 1, 2004.