WAPATO — The challenges of providing health care to all of Yakima County’s residents have multiplied in the past year, but there are solutions available, speakers told a sizable group of residents at a health care community forum.
Recent contract negotiations between insurance companies and Yakima County’s largest hospital network dominated the second half of Thursday's meeting, which 60 people attended.
Sponsored by Yakima Valley Healthcare Defense Partnership and hosted by the Wapato Filipino Community Hall, the forum also addressed upcoming federal changes to Medicaid funding and eligibility requirements.
“It is deeply upsetting and unsettling to have your health care interrupted for any reason,” said Kelsey Brontide, senior services lead for the SHIBA program sponsored by Catholic Charities of Central Washington.
The Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors is a program under the state’s Office of the Insurance Commissioner aimed at providing free, unbiased and confidential help to people navigating Medicare-related health care decisions.
Insurance issues
While the insurance commissioner's office has boosted its presence in Central and Eastern Washington in the past year to help Medicare recipients with their coverage options, it also advocates for Washingtonians covered by employer-sponsored health insurance plans.
As such, the statewide office is helping Yakima County residents with Regence employer-sponsored insurance plans as its contract with MultiCare providers and facilities in the county expired on May 10, Brontide said.
The dispute, which does not affect Regence Medicare plan members, remains unresolved. It means local MultiCare providers would be considered out-of-network for roughly 10,000 Regence patients in Yakima, and the cost of treatment by those providers would increase.
SHIBA and the insurance commissioner's office are working to inform residents of other health care provider options, such as Indigo Urgent Care on West Nob Hill Boulevard in Yakima, which Brontide said will still accept Regence plan holders.
The state office "will make sure your rights for continued health care are protected" if the insurance dispute continues, she added. “But we can’t make insurance companies and health care providers work together.”
Regence officials said MultiCare locations in Yakima, Thurston and Grays Harbor counties fell out of network for commercial plan members two weeks ago.
MultiCare also is negotiating with Premera Blue Cross, with a termination date of May 31, unless an agreement is reached. This contract dispute would affect Premera commercial plan holders at MultiCare facilities across the state.
MultiCare officials say reimbursement rates from both insurers for hospital and clinician services are among the lowest it receives and have not kept pace with rising costs.
The Tacoma-based health care provider and officials with the two insurance companies say negotiations are continuing, with hope of reaching an agreement in the near future.
Brontide and Christina Serabia, who co-moderated Thursday night’s meeting with Cristina Gonzalez Torres, said public pressure on the insurance companies, MultiCare and elected officials could help end the coverage dispute.
“We are here to take your complaints and communicate them to our congresspeople” and state legislators, Brontide said.
Medicaid
The first portion of Thursday’s meeting — which included a Filipino food dinner provided by the Filipino American Community of the Yakima Valley — focused on upcoming changes in the federal budget that will impact those covered by Apple Health (Medicaid) in Washington state. Medicaid is federal-state healthcare insurance program that helps pay for healthcare for low-income people of any age.
Serabia reviewed how the H.R. 1 budget bill passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump last year includes significant cuts to federal Medicaid funding, tightens eligibility and introduces work requirements and cost-sharing for some adults.
The bill also ends subsidized health care coverage for many non-documented residents, with changes to eligibility affecting an estimated 13,715 residents across Washington state, said Christy Bracewell Trotter, CEO of Yakima Valley Farmworkers Clinic.
“Most of the HR-1 changes are impacting adults between the ages of 18 and 65 who don’t have any dependents,” she said.
Overall, Yakima County has an estimated 30,000 adults among its 113,000 Medicaid recipients who could be affected by the budget cuts and eligibility changes, Bracewell Trotter said.
Rhonda Hauff, president and CEO of Yakima Neighborhood Health, noted there are eight different state programs that could help cover people who lose federal health care coverage.
“We are lucky to be in Washington state,” Hauff said.
New work requirements for Medicaid are scheduled to take effect by the end of the year, Hauff said. She encouraged those covered by Medicaid to save pay stubs and even volunteering timecards or other documentation, as volunteering can count toward the work requirements.
Those with questions about their health care or Medicaid options were encouraged to talk with a Northwest Health Law Advocates navigator at NoHLA.org or by calling 1-855-923-4633.
Also speaking at Thursday’s community forum were Merivet Lombera and Lucero Mendez, state coordinator and regional organizer of the Poder Latinx organization; and Thomas Kennedy, social media lead for Whole Washington, a group advocating for universal health care in the state.
