Jennie Stuart Medical Center is receiving just under $4 million as part of a settlement of a 13-year-old dispute regarding Medicaid funding rates.
Governor Andy Beshear and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced $383 million in state and federal dollars for 54 rural hospitals across Kentucky.
A news release says the settlement negotiated by Gov. Beshear, with support from Senate Majority Leader McConnell, successfully convinced the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to offer funding in combination with the state’s liability of $93.9 million. The previous administration had budgeted an estimated $425 million in state funding to settle the case.
The governor said the settlement saved the state more than $300 million and provides long-awaited funds immediately back to rural hospitals.
Litigation began with an administrative action in 2007 and then the lawsuit in 2013, all involving the rate setting methodology used for acute care hospitals for 2007-2015. The hospitals claimed the methodology used by Kentucky Medicaid was invalid, and the Franklin Circuit Court and the Kentucky Court of Appeals agreed. The case is pending before the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Logan Memorial Hospital is receiving about $1.5 million and Owensboro Health Muhlenberg Community Hospital will get about $1.7 million.