Florida lawmakers agreed to cut $521 million in hospital funding for the upcoming fiscal year beginning in July, according to a Miami Herald report.
Here are five things to know.
1. The hospital funding cuts come from the state's general revenues as well as federal matching Medicaid monies, according to the report.
2. The cuts are projected to have a particularly significant affect on hospitals in the southern part of the state, especially public hospitals seeing a large number of Medicaid and uninsured patients. Of the $521 million, $160 million of the cuts would affect south Florida hospitals, according to the report.
3. Hollywood, Fla.-based Memorial Healthcare System, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Broward Health and Miami-based Jackson Health System are slated for cuts of $26.6 million, about $24.3 million and $32.5 million, respectively, Miami Herald reports.
4. The proposed hospital funding cuts come as Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott and the federal government agreed to a $1.5 billion annual commitment for Florida's Low Income Pool program to aid the state's safety-net hospitals. Gov. Scott and the federal government made the commitment announcement last month. However, the exact methodology for those monies is unclear, Aurelio Fernandez, CEO of Memorial Healthcare System, told the Miami Herald. Therefore, hospital executives said it is unknown at this time exactly how the funding cuts will affect their organizations, the report states.
5. The Florida legislature passed an $82.4 billion state budget Monday, according to another Miami Herald article. The budget still awaits a decision from Gov. Scott, who could reject or approve the budget.