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FL Hospitals Owe $267M, Feds Say

Florida hospitals have just one year to repay $267 million for Medicaid charges the federal government says it shouldn’t have covered during the past eight years, the Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau reports.

State and hospital officials are asking for three years to pay back the overpayments to hospitals through the so-called Low-Income Pool fund, saying one year would leave them in dire straits.

The Low-Income Pool, or LIP, funds, for which the state will get a $1 billion appropriation this year to cover health care for the poor.

The losses from this repayment would translate to $47 million at Jackson Memorial in Miami and $13.3 million at Tampa General Hospital, the Times/Herald reports.

Federal audits are behind the payment adjustments. But Jackson Health System financial officer Mark Knight told the Times/Herald that the government is frustrated that Florida has rejected expanding Medicaid, and may be less cooperative in requests to lengthen the repayment timeline.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.