A bill for renewal of a fee on hospitals to pay for Medicaid

The Georgia legislature showed some responsibility for public health Friday, even though it did so through a shell game.

Gretchen noted that Aaron Gould Sheinin and Misty Williams wrote for the AJC Friday, ‘Bed tax’ clears final hurdle,

The state's ailing Medicaid program benefited from critical care Friday, when the House overwhelmingly approved a bill that will make way for renewal of a fee on hospitals.

Senate Bill 24 will transfer the power to levy the fee — seen as necessary to avoid a loss of $700 million in funding for the medical care program that serves low-income Georgians — from the Legislature to the state's community health care agency.

The bill, proposed by Gov. Nathan Deal, solves a problem for many legislators who did not want to renew the 2-year-old fee, widely known as the “bed tax,” because they saw it as a tax increase.

Without the fee, hospitals and doctors faced cuts in Medicaid reimbursement that could exceed 20 percent, a hit that would have forced many to drastically cut services and cause some small rural hospitals to shut down.

“The legislation just breathed life into 27 hospitals,” said Jimmy Lewis, the CEO of HomeTown Health, a network of rural hospitals and providers.

There's more in the article.

-jsq