(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s hospitals are much more focused on the money they will get under the new state budget than the money they’re going to have to pay.
Included in the plan that Gov. Tony Evers signed early Thursday morning is a large increase in the tax that hospitals across Wisconsin pay. The hospital assessment is going from 1.8% to the maximum 6%.
But the Wisconsin Hospital Association on Thursday praised the new state budget, because that higher tax is going to be used to grab more money from Washington, D.C. to boost Medicaid funding in the state.
“This increased funding will help hospitals sustain and expand access to care for patients across Wisconsin when one-third of the state’s hospitals are operating at a deficit, driven by $1.6 billion in losses from Medicaid reimbursement,” WHA President and CEO Kyle O’Brien said in a statement.
O’Brien called the Medicaid money capture “unprecedented.”
The boost to Medicaid reimbursement comes at a critical time for Wisconsin hospitals. The WHA recently released a report that said over a third of hospitals in the state are operating at a loss. The report added that higher than affordable Medicaid costs were one of the driving reasons.
The hospitals are also praising the new budget’s new fee schedule for work-related injuries.
Lawmakers and the governor came to terms on a new workers; comp deal that will set payments across the state.
“Under the budget bill, worker’s compensation insurance carriers and self-funded employers would be given a different maximum rate of reimbursement for certain hospital services if they reimburse a hospital claim promptly,” Brien explained. “This timely payment reform to the worker’s compensation system is something that hospitals have sought for years, as worker’s compensation carriers are often the slowest to reimburse a hospital for care provided to injured workers.”
Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, R-Walworth, said while there will be more Medicaid money flowing to hospitals under the new state budget, Wisconsin is not expanding Medicaid or adding anyone new to the rolls.
