The Georgia legislature showed some responsibility for public health Friday,
even though it did so through a shell game.

Gretchen noted that
Aaron Gould Sheinin and Misty Williams wrote for the AJC Friday,

‘Bed tax’ clears final hurdle,

The state’s ailing Medicaid program benefited from critical care
Friday, when the House overwhelmingly approved a bill that will make
way for renewal of a fee on hospitals.

Senate Bill 24 will transfer the power to levy the fee — seen
as necessary to avoid a loss of $700 million in funding for the
medical care program that serves low-income Georgians — from
the Legislature to the state’s community health care agency.

The bill, proposed by Gov. Nathan Deal, solves a problem for many
legislators who did not want to renew the 2-year-old fee, widely
known as the “bed tax,” because they saw it as a tax
increase.

Without the fee, hospitals and doctors faced cuts in Medicaid
reimbursement that could exceed 20 percent, a hit that would have
forced many to drastically cut services and cause some small rural
hospitals to shut down.

“The legislation just breathed life into 27 hospitals,”
said Jimmy Lewis, the CEO of HomeTown Health, a network of rural
hospitals and providers.

There’s more in

the article.

-jsq