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Christine Jordan SextonMay 31, 2015

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The 2015 Special Session-A kicks off Monday. Here are five questions to consider going into the Special Session, which was called by House Speaker Steve Crisafulli and Senate President Andy Gardiner despite not having reached any agreement on the budget or spending in the month since the regular session came to a crashing end without […]

Christine Jordan SextonMay 29, 2015

The federal government has received Gov. Rick Scott‘s proposal to revamp the Low Income Pool and “continues to be engaged with Florida,” but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “has not communicated approval,” a spokesman for HHS said Friday. Ben Wakana said CMS is reviewing the proposal as well as the public comments and […]

Christine Jordan SextonMay 28, 2015

Some of the state’s largest teaching hospitals would lose $200 million in Medicaid funds under a proposal Gov. Rick Scott has floated to the federal government in hopes of keeping Florida’s Low Income Pool program at $2 billion. Conversely, the for-profit facilities would gain the most under the proposal being advanced by Scott, the former chief […]

Christine Jordan SextonMay 27, 2015

Amid an ongoing dust-up over Florida’s health care spending, there are troubling signs that one of the reforms touted by Gov. Rick Scott may not be saving taxpayers money as initially promised. Scott signed into law in 2011 a measure that shifted Florida’s 3 million plus Medicaid patients into managed care. Scott praised the move […]

Christine Jordan SextonMay 27, 2015

Days after being advised that it could tentatively expect $1 billion in supplemental Medicaid funding the Gov. Rick Scott administration pushed for more than double that. Deputy Secretary for Medicaid Justin Senior sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Director Victoria Wachino to use $1 billion in local money to match federal funds […]

Christine Jordan SextonMay 21, 2015

The budget impasse paralyzing the state could come to an end soon as the federal government advised Florida today in a letter that it could receive an additional $1 billion this year in supplemental Medicaid funds to help pay hospitals for providing care to the uninsured and poor The state can expect $600 million in supplemental […]

Christine Jordan SextonApril 30, 2015

Supplemental Medicaid funding and whether Florida should expand health care access to 800,000 uninsured working Floridians was the issue that brought the 2015 session to a grinding halt. In Orlando, though, the issue of Low Income Pool funding and Medicaid expansion didn’t draw crowds as the Agency for Health Care Administration held the first of […]

Christine Jordan SextonApril 28, 2015

Gov. Rick Scott filed a lawsuit in federal court in Pensacola on Tuesday seeking declaratory relief that the Obama administration violated the U.S. Constitution by withholding supplemental Medicaid funding from the state in the form of Low Income Pool money. The lawsuit was filed shortly after the House of Representatives announced it was adjourning for […]

Christine Jordan SextonApril 23, 2015

With just one week left in the regular legislative session the House on Thursday offered to spend $200 million in general revenue to help fund hospitals in the absence of the federal Low Income Pool. “It is a proposal that is on their desk right now,” House Speaker Steve Crisafulli told reporters as he announced […]

Christine Jordan SextonApril 21, 2015

Florida’s budget showdown over hospital funding may not be resolved until midsummer thanks to a little-noticed series of deadlines that accompany the state’s official request to draw down billions in health care funding. The decision by the Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Liz Dudek on Monday to propose an amendment to the existing Medicaid waiver […]

Tag: Justin Senior

Five questions heading into Special Session

Washington has not signed off on Rick Scott’s new LIP proposal, feds say

Teaching hospitals losers, for-profits winners, under Rick Scott’s alternative LIP proposal

Another health care budget headache for Florida?

Amid budget tug of war Rick Scott pushes new hospital funding proposal with no general revenue

Feds advise Florida that LIP could be $1 billion this year, $600 million next year

First Medicaid waiver meeting in Orlando draws small crowd

Rick Scott sues feds over Obamacare, Low Income Pool dollars

House offers $200 million to Senate to revive budget talks

Feds have until July 4 to answer state on Medicaid