HB490 Summary

• Extends the private hospital assessment and Medicaid funding program through fiscal years 2014 and 2015, changing the assessment base year to fiscal year 2011 and setting the assessment rate at 5.50 percent of net patient revenue for those years.

• Requires state-owned and publicly owned hospitals to make intergovernmental transfers to the Medicaid Agency beginning October 1, 2013, calculated to obtain federal matching funds for direct inpatient and outpatient care and access payments.

• Establishes that certified public expenditures by state-owned and public hospitals shall be limited to uncompensated care costs and used to pay disproportionate share payments to those hospitals.

• Makes the Hospital Assessment Account exempt from state budgetary cuts and requires any remaining positive balance on September 30, 2014, to be factored into calculation of new assessment rates or refunded to hospitals proportionally.

• Becomes effective October 1, 2013, with federal participation contingencies that allow the assessment to cease if federal matching funds become unavailable or if certain regulatory changes occur.