OCR Text |
Show Long-Term Patient Core Program Extended at Allen Memorial Hospital Official confirmation was received by Allen Memorial Hospital Monday that the extended-care program which terminated March 31 has been funded for an additional year. Dr. Bruce A. Walter, Utah Deputy Director of Health, state in his letter, "Authorization "Authoriza-tion is hereby given to you to begin admitting long term care patients and to recieve reimbursement reim-bursement for these patients, effective April 2, 1976. For those hospitals having carry over patients from 1975, reimbursement will continue as though the project had not been interrupted." The program, officially named nam-ed the Utah Cost Improvement Project, was started in 1973 to provide for better utilization of hospitals in Utah by providing j care for long-term patients. Hospitals were reimbursed by the federal government at $20 per patient per day, an amount considerably lower than would be paid by Medicare if such patients were being cared for on an acute basis. The lower amount not only provides for long-term care of patients, but also saves the federal government the difference differ-ence between acute and long-term charges. The extension of the program pro-gram will provide for additional addition-al substantiation of the resultant resul-tant savings and possible extension of application of this project in otner states. |