Compromise reached in battle between Las Vegas hospitals

Wednesday, May 30, 2001 | 11:01 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Legislature has reached a compromise in the battle involving three hospitals in Clark County in regard to an extra $3.2 million a year in federal aid to help pay for indigent patients.

"Nobody won, nobody lost," says Bob Ostrovsky, lobbyist for Lake Mead Hospital.

Bob Barengo, who represented Sunrise Hospital, said Tuesday the settlement now recognizes that this private hospital treats a major share of non-paying patients and should be compensated.

Sunrise receives no money from the "disproportionate share" program for treating poor people. Lake Mead receives $73,000 annually. University Medical Center gets an estimated $14 million because it treats the largest number of indigents in the state.

The Senate initially approved a bill that gave $1.2 million to Sunrise, $500,000 for Lake Mead and $100,000 to University Medical Center.

But the Assembly changed the distribution, taking the money from Sunrise and bumping the grant to Lake Mead to $1.3 million and $200,000 to $450,000 for University Medical Center.

The Senate Monday refused to accept the Assembly version. Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, helped write the compromise.

The settlement calls for Sunrise to receive $665,910 next fiscal year and $699,206 the following year. Lake Mead will receive $617,260 in 2002 and $651,110 in 2003. University Medical Center would get $719,700 in 2002 and $751,363 in 2003.

Money is also distributed to some hospitals in rural Nevada.

Senate Bill 377 also calls for a study during the interim into how the federal money should be split. The state and the hospitals conducted a study last year but couldn't agree on how they should be compensated.

Ostrovsky said that for the first time Lake Mead would also receive another $600,000 from the county fund to treat patients.

Lake Mead annually treats about 8,000 patients who can't pay. That's 37 percent of the patients at the North Las Vegas hospital. Sunrise cares for about 23,000 indigent patients annually, or about 12 percent of its patient load.

University Medical Center serves about 37,000 of these patients who have no insurance or no money to pay for the treatment.

Negotiators said Tuesday they were confident the Senate and Assembly would adopt the compromise before the session ends June 4.