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Hospitals: New Medicaid Formula Devastating

A proposal to redistribute Medicaid money collected by local communities is being criticized by three South Florida hospital executives, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Carlos Migoya, CEO of Jackson Health System; Frank Nask, CEO of Broward Health; and Frank Sacco, CEO of Memorial Healthcare System, wrote that the Legislature’s proposed calculation would divert $600 million in South Florida taxes and matching federal funds under the plan being considered in Tallahassee.

The money, part of a complicated calculation, is designed to help pay for the care of indigent patients.

 “You might be shocked to learn that legislators are reallocating our money to other hospitals across Florida, including for-profit hospitals and hospitals in communities that – unlike Broward and Miami-Dade counties – have not chosen to give local public health funds to care for the indigent,” they wrote in the Sun Sentinel. “Earnings generated by for-profit hospitals leave the state; these hospitals do not distribute any of their profits to assist other hospitals.”

A Miami Herald editorial also blasted the plan. It says Jackson Health alone would lose $140 million. “This new funding formula is an abuse,” the Herald says.

 

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.