The oath every physician takes is to “Do no harm.” I think it’s an important credo for Congress and the Trump Administration to bear in mind as they wrestle with the future of the Affordable Care Act.

There are countless stories of real people, with real healthcare worries, that have been helped by the ACA. They are the most poignant reasons to preserve a law that has helped people access better healthcare and has protected them from financial devastation if they are hit with a major illness or pre-existing condition.

Truth is, the potential for harm extends far beyond the 22 million Americans and 800,000 New Jersey residents who receive health insurance under the ACA. The impact could be felt in reduced coverage protections for all healthcare consumers, in financial hits that jeopardize healthcare providers that care for us all and in deep federal funding cuts that could punch a hole in our state budget – with potential reverberations for all residents.

Those of us in the healthcare community are watching the current debate over whether to “repeal, replace or repair” the ACA with the hope that Washington does no harm to an industry that is responsible for 17 percent of our nation’s gross domestic product.

The ACA has, quite frankly, changed the way our healthcare system operates. The healthcare community has moved aggressively since the law’s passage in 2010 to implement the component parts by enrolling uninsured individuals into Medicaid or an insurance plan; adopting more preventive health measures to keep people out of the hospital; and investing greatly in improved healthcare quality to prevent hospital readmissions and increase the value of the care we deliver.

Insurance coverage is critical to providing care to people in the right healthcare setting – that is, the setting where people can get the appropriate level of medical services at the lowest cost. It makes no sense to wait until you are very ill to come to an emergency department for care when a visit to a primary care doctor a week prior could have prevented that from happening.

I’m heartened to hear President Trump say that no one will lose coverage under a replacement plan. That’s critical to the people who are now covered under the law, and it’s also critical to the healthcare provider community in New Jersey. Why? There are two reasons.

First, the provider community – hospitals, health systems, nursing homes and others – absorbed $1.8 billion in cuts over a eight-year period to help pay for the ACA. Those cuts were offset because providers were caring for many more people with health insurance. If the coverage under the ACA erodes, our healthcare system could be staggered by a one-two punch: billions of dollars in cuts, plus the loss of payments from insurance companies.

Second, New Jersey law requires all of our hospitals to provide care to all people in all settings, regardless of their ability to pay. We’re proud of this commitment to caring for all of our communities here in the Garden State, but it comes with a steep cost. Prior to the ACA, hospitals provided more than $1 billion annually in charity care services to 1.3 million uninsured New Jerseyans. In exchange, hospitals received partial reimbursement from the state. The state kicked in $650 million for those charity care costs prior to the ACA’s coverage mandate, but that funding stream has now been reduced to $302 million as the number of uninsured diminished.

Gov. Christie made the right decision for our state to expand Medicaid to more individuals, and it has had a real impact. But if the ACA is repealed without an adequate replacement, the number of insured will spike. Hospitals will provide the care needed, but it will require a reinvestment of state dollars into the charity care pool to adequately pay hospitals for that care. If the reinvestment doesn’t occur, many New Jersey hospitals will struggle financially. It’s a simple, but alarming, formula: Fewer patients with insurance + less money to pay for charity care = a fiscal crisis for New Jersey’s healthcare community.

Our “ask” to Congress members is this: As you debate how to recast the ACA – whether a “repair” or a “replacement” – recognize the importance of health insurance for those 800,000 New Jersey residents and the healthcare providers that care for them. And then, remember that age-old oath and do no harm.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Ryan, Esq., is president and CEO of the New Jersey Hospital Association, a not-for-profit healthcare trade organization based in Princeton.

New Jersey hospitals are working hard to reinvent healthcare to ensure continued quality and access through more efficient, effective healthcare services. That is essential as hospitals face significant federal Medicare cuts at the same time they are preparing to care for our aging population and the added demands of a greater number of insured individuals. “Value” is the bottom line – care that is high in quality but delivered efficiently and in the right setting.

New Jersey hospitals have been working to improve health, provide better care and reduce costs long before the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, but the ACA has pushed us to do more. To that end, N.J. hospitals are:

• Improving coordination of services across the continuum of care. Whether they are forming their own “accountable care organizations” or reaching out in greater collaboration with local post-acute partners, hospitals are forging new relationships, embracing technology like electronic health records and regional sharing of information and using new tools like the state’s Universal Transfer Form to ensure better communication and continuity of care.
• Testing new payment models that promote collaboration. 31 New Jersey hospitals have joined NJHA in a federal pilot project called “gainsharing,” which allows hospitals and physicians to work in collaboration to find ways to streamline patient care and reduce in-hospital costs.
• Investing resources, staff and energy to improving healthcare quality. NJHA’s Institute for Quality and Patient Safety is leading New Jersey hospitals in the federal quality improvement initiative called Partnership for Patients. In the first year of this effort, they have produced tremendous results that not only make care safer for patients, but also reduce healthcare costs in the long run. Those achievements include a 65 percent decline in pressure ulcers, a 45.8 percent decline in ventilator-associated pneumonia and additional improvements in reducing healthcare-associated infections and hospital readmissions.

There have been some news headlines recently about hospital “charges.” Chances are you’re not affected by this issue, because only about 4 percent of patient cases are actually affected by these charges. It’s complicated, but it’s important to remember that what a hospital lists as its charges and what it actually gets paid for its healthcare services are two very different things. Charges are like the “list price” for hospital services. In all but a very small number of situations, those list prices are ratcheted down dramatically by insurance companies or government health programs.

For example, government programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the state’s charity care program all pay hospitals less than their costs for the care they provide to patients in those three programs. Yes, hospitals lose money when they care for a patient on Medicare, Medicaid and charity care. HMOs and other insurance companies also try to drive down payments to hospitals.

Unfortunately, hospitals’ high charges are the result of a broken system in which no one wants to pay their fair share for healthcare services. Hospitals have worked hard to address this problem by voluntarily adopting billing and payment policies that offer patients discounts on charges, along with workable payment arrangements. In addition, state law limits hospital billing amounts for almost all New Jerseyans except those with high earnings.

Hospital leaders agree that our healthcare system isn’t perfect and that high healthcare costs are a worry for everyone. We’re hoping that those problems will be addressed by a meaningful healthcare reform bill in Congress that provides insurance to more individuals. But until then, New Jersey’s hospitals will continue to do their part by providing healthcare services to everyone who comes through our doors, regardless of their ability to pay.