Finance Policy Issues

Healthcare Reimbursement and Financing

Hospital and health system financing and reimbursement is complex and affects access to care in communities across Michigan. The MHA works on behalf of its members to achieve fair and adequate healthcare funding, and also helps hospitals communicate financial issues to the communities they serve.

Federal and State Hospital Finance Issues

The MHA monitors and engages with federal and state agencies that develop financing rules that direct hospital payments. These include payments for inpatient and outpatient services, value-based payments and fee-for-service payments. The MHA provides comments on key policy issues that impact the entire membership and/or significant subsets of the Michigan hospital community. MHA comments are shared with the membership via Monday Report and direct email communications to assist members in developing their own comments to governmental agencies.

Hospital Association Reporting Portal (HARP)

HARP is a secure online portal that allows MHA-member hospitals to access hospital-specific information while also providing an upload functionality for submitting documentation to the MHA.  For any questions contact the Finance Policy Department.

Medicare Advantage Enrollment

Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment in Michigan totaled approximately 1.25 million in January, an increase of 33,000 beneficiaries since October. The January enrollment is spread across 48 MA plans that are currently operating in the state, with approximately 57.8% of Michigan’s 2.17 million Medicare beneficiaries covered by an MA plan. With up to 29 plans covering beneficiaries in some Michigan counties, a significant burden has been created for hospitals, which may be intensified if MA plans conduct their own audits for medical necessity and other utilization issues.

To assist hospitals in identifying which MA plans are currently operating in their region, the MHA has updated the list of plans in each Michigan county, based on January enrollment.

Members with questions may contact Katie Jaskolski at the MHA.