Hospitals eager for payments
Maine hospitals are lining up for $300 million in Medicaid reimbursements, part of the $900 million the state expects to receive from the federal stimulus package.
The state owes Maine hospitals a total of $424 million in payments stretching back to 2005 for services to low-income patients covered by MaineCare, the state's version of Medicaid. Ryan Low, Maine's commissioner of finance and administration, said the administration will act as quickly as possible to make the payments to hospitals, some of which have been tapping credit lines to make payroll and cutting staffing or services, reported the Portland Press Herald.
The stimulus money will also be used to increase the reimbursement rate to hospitals for Medicaid-approved services from 64% to nearly 73%. A spokesperson for the Maine Hospital Association told the paper that the debt accumulated because the state used outdated data to calculate reimbursement rates and underestimated the number of Mainers receiving medical services through MaineCare.
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