Florida lawmakers ended a special session Friday without taking up a Senate bill that would have pumped more Medicaid money into the state's hospitals.
Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Chairwoman Anitere Flores, R-Miami, proposed the measure (SB 4-A), which called for providing an additional $100 million in state money to hospitals. That would have drawn down $160 million in federal matching funds.
The combined $260 million would have helped reduce $521 million in Medicaid payment cuts that lawmakers included in a state budget approved last month. But the House did not support taking up the hospital issue during the three-day special session, which was held primarily to deal with education and economic-development issues. The House did not introduce a hospital funding bill, and the Senate ultimately did not vote on Flores' proposal.
