FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky has settled a 13-year-old dispute with 54 rural hospitals over Medicaid reimbursement rates, officials said.
Kentucky and the federal government will pay $383 million to settle with hospitals that said they were underpaid by Medicaid, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Wednesday. The state’s portion will be about $94 million and the federal government, which provides the majority of Kentucky’s Medicaid money, will pay about $289 million.
Beshear said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell helped work out a resolution with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Medicaid is a joint federal-state health insurance program for the poor and disabled.
The dispute began in 2007 when a group of rural hospitals filed a protest over a change in reimbursement that stayed in effect for several years.
Leaders of several hospital systems told news outlets they were glad to have the matter resolved.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.