Providing Care for the Senior Citizens

An MBA graduate from Wake Forest University, Danny McClary is a strategic management expert with more than 20 years of practice in the healthcare industry. Currently, Danny McClary works as chief financial officer at Community Health Systems, which owns and operates Community Senior Life (CSL) in Orange Beach, Alabama.

The mission of CSL is to celebrate seniors while embracing their future through the use of innovative services designed to meet their social, physical, spiritual, and financial needs. CSL tailor makes all its services to ensure that the different lifestyles of the seniors are met while preserving their dignity. There are several main services that seniors receive at CSL.

Homeownership allows owners who are age-qualified to own a home within a gated community upon retirement. CSL also offers independent living where retirees can enjoy the community’s benefits without forfeiting their freedom. In this arrangement, seniors can attend and participate in excursions, events, and social gatherings hosted by the community. Assisted living and memory care services, especially for seniors with dementia and Alzheimer’s, are also provided at Community Senior Life.

Cost Sharing Limitations on Medicaid

Healthcare finance executive Danny McClary is the CFO of Community Health Systems, where he has direct operational management for an $80 million provider. A proponent of healthcare reform, Danny McClary has a deep understanding of Medicaid and its associated cost sharing rules.

States can charge premiums and require cost sharing by Medicaid enrollees. These costs have to be paid out of pocket and can include deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments. However, these costs are limited to nominal amounts and cannot exceed state payments for that service.

For example, states can charge eligible populations limited copayments for institutional care or non-emergency use of emergency rooms. These copayments can be fixed at a percentage of the cost of the agency, say 10 percent, or at a dollar value, say $75 for institutional care. States can also add additional charges for drugs to promote the use of certain drugs. For example, a state may have a preferred and non-preferred drug list, with copayment charges applying to the latter. Patients are usually informed which drugs are preferred and which are not.

Not all Medicaid enrollees, however, are eligible to cost share. There are exempt groups such as children below age 18, people living in institutions who contribute all their income to the cost of care, and people getting hospice care. Further, certain services are exempt from cost sharing. These include emergency services, preventive children’s services, pregnancy-related services, and family planning services.

HFMA’s Executive Connections Program

Experienced healthcare administrator Danny McClary is the CFO of Community Health Systems in Orange Beach, Alabama. A skilled leader focused on organizational change management, Danny McClary is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA).

HFMA will hold its annual conference on November 8-10, 2021, at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The go-to event in healthcare finance, the 2021 HFMA annual conference will bring together thousands of professionals from across the country to participate in three strategy-focused sessions and over 90 educational sessions. Attendees will listen to keynote presentations from guest speakers, participate in engaging discussions on emerging issues in healthcare finance, interact with their peers in group sessions to build their networks, and earn up to 14 CPE credits.

For healthcare finance executives with more specific needs, HFMA has a unique executive connections program through which it connects attendees with service or solution providers in one-on-one meetings while covering their conference registration costs. To qualify for the executive connections program, an attendee must be an executive or director from a health system or hospital and be ready to attend the conference in person. They must agree to take part in eight 15-minute meetings and then sign a credit card authorization form agreeing to pay the full conference registration fee if they do not complete the meetings set up by HFMA. Qualifying professionals can apply for the executive connections program through the HFMA website.