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.
