Florida budget proposal would cut $170M to safety-net hospitals

The new budget proposed by Florida's Senate would cut $170 million in Medicaid payments from safety-net hospitals and redirect it to other hospitals in the state, according to the Miami Herald.

The proposal would reorganize the way hospitals that give charity care are paid and direct these funds from safety-net hospitals into a base rate paid to all hospitals that give charity care.

Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Chairwoman Anitere Flores, R-Miami, said the new formula is fairer.

"We're making sure that the dollars actually follow the patient that is being served," Ms. Flores said, according to the Miami Herald.

Tony Carvalho, president of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance, said using charity care as the only determinant for these payments is misleading because safety-net hospitals receive lower reimbursement rates from Medicaid as opposed to the commercial payers at other hospitals.

"Their slogan is the money follows the patient," said Mr. Carvalho, according to the Miami Herald. "That would be pertinent if all hospitals were paid their cost of care or all hospitals did the same percentage of Medicaid. That's not the case. If you are going to pay hospitals way below the cost of care, our position is — and it has been the legislative position for years — is that you make a special adjustment when one of four of their patients are in the Medicaid pool."

 

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