Tuesday, April 13, 2010
4:02 PM
Assembly approves rural hospital assessment
The Assembly approved with bipartisan support a bill that would allow the state to tax the gross revenues of rural hospitals the same as other hospitals are currently assessed. The measure passed on an 61-37 vote.
The Senate will also take up the bill today.
Under the bill, the state's 59 rural hospitals -- defined as a hospital located outside a metro area that is more than a 35-mile drive from another hospital and maintaining no more than 25 beds for acute patient care -- would be assessed approximately 1.6 percent of gross revenues, as other hospitals are. Also known as critical access hospitals, the rural facilities were excluded from the hospital assessment passed in a budget repair bill last year.
The assessment became necessary because the DHS previously reimbursed critical access hospital 100 percent of MA costs. That was cut by 10 percent at the beginning of this year to allow the agency to realize $600 million in savings required as part of the 10 percent spending reduction mandated in the state budget.
The assessment will increase MA benefits funding by $27.7 million in 2010-11, and increase SEG revenues by $10.6 million in 2010-11, according to the LFB.
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