By Sascha Cordner
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-989009.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – A group of Health Industry advocates is moving forward with plans to allocate money to hospitals and other health providers that help low-income and uninsured patients. As Sascha Cordner reports, Low Income Pool Council members are still looking to make recommendations to the state on how to distribute a billion dollars in funds.
The chair of the Low Income Pool Council is Phil Williams, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for Medicaid Finance for Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration. He says so far, members have come up with six ideas on how to distribute LIP money, but they still have a long way to go:
"The models that are under consideration by the council are used for the potential allocation of the billion dollars per year that are available for the Low Income Pool program. The council will work its way through a series of models and hopefully come to an agreement on a model to recommend to the agency, the Governor, and the Legislature that will be used by the Legislature during the 2012 session."
The U-S Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was pushing to end the program, but the state is currently in with the federal agency to continue the LIP program through June 2014.