The Maryland Hospital Association was dissatisfied with the state's approval for a 1.65 percent rate increase, smaller than the 2.43 percent spike the lobbying organization requested, according to a report by the Baltimore Sun.
Due in part to sequestration's 2 percent cut to Medicare payments, MHA projected hospitals would operate at a 0.24 percent deficit with the state's approved rates, versus a reduced positive margin that it claims hospitals would have seen with the larger increase, according to the report.
Maryland is the only state permitted to set its own Medicare reimbursement rates under the caveat that its spending growth must not exceed the national average. Slowed national healthcare spending growth in recent years has jeopardized the state's unique exception, forcing regulators to more aggressively tamp down spending increases.
Maryland's rate increases typically last for a full year, but the latest decision will last six months beginning July 1 while the state negotiates an adjustment to the terms of its Medicare waiver with CMS.
Hospitals in Maryland had their lowest collective operating margin in 14 years at 0.8 percent for the first eight months of fiscal 2013, according to a report by the MHA.
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Due in part to sequestration's 2 percent cut to Medicare payments, MHA projected hospitals would operate at a 0.24 percent deficit with the state's approved rates, versus a reduced positive margin that it claims hospitals would have seen with the larger increase, according to the report.
Maryland is the only state permitted to set its own Medicare reimbursement rates under the caveat that its spending growth must not exceed the national average. Slowed national healthcare spending growth in recent years has jeopardized the state's unique exception, forcing regulators to more aggressively tamp down spending increases.
Maryland's rate increases typically last for a full year, but the latest decision will last six months beginning July 1 while the state negotiates an adjustment to the terms of its Medicare waiver with CMS.
Hospitals in Maryland had their lowest collective operating margin in 14 years at 0.8 percent for the first eight months of fiscal 2013, according to a report by the MHA.
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