Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) has called on Florida Gov. Rick Scott to overhaul the way the state pays for low-income patients, stating that the Low Income Pool in "not a long-term solution and often yields inequitable results," according to The News Service of Florida. According to the article in the Orlando Business Journal, ("HCA asks for higher Medicaid payments to replace LIP"), HCA "recommended increasing base Medicaid payment rates for hospitals," as well as possibly increasing a hospital-provider tax, which would replace the Low Income Pool program.
LIP is scheduled to expire June 30 unless an agreement in reached between state and federal officials.
Money from LIP is part of an agreement between the state and federal governments under a Section 1115 Waiver. It was originally approved to help hospitals deal with the number of uninsured adults who could not pay their medical bills, according to PolitiFactFlorida ("Rick Scott says feds are 'walking away' from funding Florida's Low Income Pool Program"). LIP, which started in 2005, was renewed until 2013. However, when the time came to negotiate an extension beyond 2014, "Florida upped the funding request to a whopping $4.5 billion to expand the program..." after reusing $51 billion in federal money to expand Medicaid over 10 years.
In the HCA letter, the hospital company stated that "it receives a disproportionately small amount of money through the Low Income Pool..."
Incidentally, before becoming governor, Rick Scott was CEO of Columbia/HCA. According to another PolitiFactFlorida article, the Florida Democratic Party's claim that Scott "oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nation's history" was "Mostly True" ("Rick Scott 'oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nation’s history,' Florida Democratic Party says").
To read the articles referenced, click here for the Orlando Business Journal/News Service of Florida article, here for the first PolitiFactFlorida article, and here for the second PolitiFactFlorida article.
