Faced with the threat of a 10.25 percent cut to Medicaid payments, the Georgia Hospital Association has reversed its vehement opposition to a plan that would raise funds through a tax on hospitals’ revenues.
Charles Stewart, president and CEO of Hutcheson Medical Center in Fort Oglethorpe, said late Friday afternoon that he had just learned of the hospital group’s reversal and was unsure how to react.
“We don’t know enough right now to even have an idea as to how we might be impacted,” he said.
The hospital association’s board met Thursday with state officials and decided to begin negotiating a hospital fee plan that could be used to fill a budget hole in the state’s Medicaid program.
The plan, which would tax hospitals’ net patient revenues, would allow the state to receive additional federal matching Medicaid funds, said Kevin Bloye, spokesman for the Georgia Hospital Association.