Hospital Medicaid cuts expected to top $650 million

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – House and Senate negotiators have agreed to reduce Medicaid hospital rates by about $651 million, though details of the structure of the cuts still need to be finalized.

A House proposal during a conference committee meeting Friday morning included $250 million in cuts in state general revenue for hospitals. Cutting state general revenue also leads to lost federal matching funds, bringing the total to about $651 million.

The Senate also had proposed a $250 million general-revenue cut Thursday. The budget proposals do not account for money that hospitals are expected to receive through the Low Income Pool program.

Gov. Rick Scott recently announced that $1.5 billion would be available through the so-called LIP program, which sends additional money to hospitals that care for large numbers of poor and uninsured patients. But state and federal health officials continue to negotiate how the money could be used.