Preserving Health Care Funding

Overview

For many Florida hospitals, public health care programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, represent a significant portion of the total patients served, and payments from these programs comprise a significant percentage of revenues. FHA is highly engaged with lawmakers to ensure the state budget prioritizes health care programs and services and includes no cuts to hospital payments for care provided.

Hospital finances fast facts:

• Healthy margins allow hospitals to provide life–saving care during public health emergencies, invest in trauma systems, subsidize vital community services such as mental health, and maintain an expert workforce.
• Hospitals’ Medicaid payments account for just 4% of overall general revenue spending.
• Hospitals receive just 60% of the cost of care they provide to Medicaid patients.
• The hospital directed payment program (DPP) is a supplemental payment program intended to reduce the Medicaid payment shortfall, but it requires annual federal government authorization and is not a justification for Medicaid cuts.