The American Hospital Association submitted a letter Tuesday to CMS, asking the agency to withdraw a proposed rule to include third-party payments when calculating the hospital-specific limitation on Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments.
In its proposal, CMS says the rule is simply a clarification on existing policy.
"Specifically, the rule would make clearer in the text of the regulation that uncompensated care costs include only those costs for Medicaid eligible individuals that remain after accounting for payments received by hospitals or on behalf of Medicaid eligible individuals, including Medicare and other third-party payments that compensate the hospitals for care furnished to such individuals," the proposed rule states.
In the letter to CMS, the AHA argues the proposed rule is more than a clarification and actually establishes new policy. According to the AHA, CMS proposed the rule to avoid potentially unfavorable rulings in cases pending in federal court that address the DSH payment calculation.
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