Hospitals and Medicaid Costs – Ohio

Feds OK plan to let hospitals recoup Medicaid expense, By Catherine Candisky, July 15, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Federal regulators have approved a state plan to pay hospitals an additional $87 million this year for the care they provide to low-income Ohioans on Medicaid. The funds will be disbursed to hospitals by the end of this month. The bulk payment and a 5 percent increase in Medicaid reimbursement fees effective in October were included in last year’s state budget to let hospitals recoup some of the money they were losing through a new state franchise fee. The fee is projected to cost hospitals statewide $718 million over the two-year budget ending June 30, 2011. The two provisions aimed at offsetting that expense will let hospitals recoup $569 million, said Tiffany Himmelreich, spokeswoman for the Ohio Hospital Association…”