Sunday, March 31, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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As a neonatal physician who has spent years helping premature babies fight for a chance at life, and as a Nevada state senator, we come from two different professional environments.
But we share an important viewpoint about health care in our community and throughout our state: Medicaid reimbursements for children and babies must be increased to better cover the actual cost of care.
Without an increase, the cost of care may become unsustainable for vital services at hospitals like Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where much of the care for critically ill babies and children in our state is delivered. For families of these children, not being able to access the best possible care in their hometown or even home state could have devastating consequences.
That is why we are extremely grateful to Gov. Steve Sisolak for his proposal to increase Medicaid reimbursements by 15 percent for patients in pediatric intensive care units and neonatal intensive care.
As the largest Medicaid provider in the state, which is responsible for the care of one in 12 adults in Nevada, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center is thrilled with this important first step. It places us on a path to deliver on the state’s promise when Medicaid expanded to include twice as many residents, or more than 650,000 people.
Together, Sunrise Hospital and Sunrise Children’s Hospital are Nevada’s largest provider of Medicaid services and the safety net provider for 1 in 4 children born in Nevada. On average, 5,000 babies are born at Sunrise Hospital each year — most to families covered by Medicaid or without insurance, and often with serious health issues.
In fact, Medicaid covers 75 percent, or three-fourths, of Sunrise Children’s Hospital’s neonatal intensive care babies. This barely compensates the hospital for half the cost to provide care.
Since low Medicaid reimbursement rates do not come anywhere near the actual cost of care, Sunrise Children’s Hospital’s ability to continue providing medical care to Nevada’s most vulnerable and sickest children is in jeopardy.
Sunrise Children’s Hospital’s 72-bed neonatal intensive care unit is the only facility in Nevada equipped to care for the most critically ill premature infants.
More than 1,000 babies are admitted to the NICU annually. Some infants are as small as 1 pound, others are in need of life-saving surgery, and all are in need of specialized medical care. Sunrise Children’s Hospital cares for our state’s sickest and tiniest babies and children, with the ability to care for neonatal babies as young as 22 to 26 weeks who weigh less than a carton of milk.
Moreover, Sunrise Children’s Hospital is the only NICU that offers Neonatal Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation treatment for critically ill term or near-term infants with respiratory failure.
For newborns in need of heart surgery, their only option is Sunrise Children’s Hospital, where neonatal cardiac surgeons perform more than 350 heart surgeries every year. Based on these capabilities, Sunrise Children’s Hospital is the region’s only facility that functions as a Level IV NICU as defined by standards set out by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
As the 2019 legislative session is now underway, we are grateful to Gov. Sisolak for his compassion toward Nevada families and children and his acknowledgement of the challenges that face hospitals that care for our state’s most vulnerable patients.
Nevada families, children and babies deserve access to the best possible health care. We appreciate the governor’s action to help us keep critical services in Nevada so that patients don’t have to leave the state for the life-saving care they deserve and need.
Dr. Patricia Ramsay is the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit medical director at Sunrise Children’s Hospital. She has been caring for critically ill infants at Sunrise Hospital since 2010. State Sen. Yvanna Cancela was appointed in 2016 to the Nevada Senate’s 10th District seat, and was elected to the position in 2018.
