Thomason CEO Jim Valenti and a delegation of El Paso County officials were in Washington today to discuss the issue with lawmakers. The cost to El Paso's "safety net" hospital could be tens of millions if the rule takes effect May 26 as planned.

The Thomason Hospital board approved Wednesday joining a lawsuit brought by three national hospital associations seeking to stop implementation of Medicaid rules that would cut funding to "safety net" hospitals across the country.

In El Paso, Thomason officials said last week, the cuts could cost the hospital $30 million, according to a KVIA report.

Thomason CEO Jim Valenti, in an interview Tuesday, said the cuts would be more than $20 million.

Valenti and a delegation of El Paso County officials were in Washington Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the issue with lawmakers.

According to a news release from the county attorney office: "County Attorney Jose Rodríguez, County Commissioner Veronica Escobar, and Thomason Hospital's CEO James Valenti, will be meeting today and tomorrow with congressional representatives from Texas, including Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, as well as Congressmen Ruben Hinojosa, Silvestre Reyes, Henry Cuellar, Ciro Rodriguez, and Solomon Ortiz, among others.

"The El Paso delegation will be asking members of congress to prevent the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from implementing new Medicaid payment rules that do not allow the use of federal funds to care for the uninsured, or to provide specialty care such as trauma or neonatal intensive care."

The visit to Washington, and the lawsuit signed onto by Thomason, are part of an effort to stop enforcement of the rules May 26, which would "lower reimbursements to hospitals treating Medicaid patients by $5 billion between 2008 and 2013," a story in the San Mateo County Times stated Wednesday. The Bay Area paper reported that Alameda General Hospital also signed on to the lawsuit.

Valenti said Thomason was joining the lawsuit as part of its "leadership role" for hospitals around the country, particularly the border.

"This is something that is important to us. We have taken a leadership role in the nation on this because we represent a border community, and we were asked by the associations to participate, along with other hospital districts in Texas," Valenti said. He said that Thomason was the first to sign on "because of the timing of the board meetings," but he expected others to follow suit.

"We want to demonstrate to the community that this board and the leadership is taking every effort to make sure we communicate our vision of El Paso and what the effects mean to us," Valenti said.

The associations involved in the lawsuit are the American Hospital Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems. The National Association of Children's Hospitals also supports the lawsuit.