South Florida Hospital Settles on Undocumented Immigrant Care

Law.com ^ | June 5, 2018 | By Christine Sexton

[Oldeconomybuyer]

A South Florida hospital has agreed to reimburse the state more than $800,000 to settle Medicaid claims about care for undocumented immigrants who sought treatment.

The payments from Homestead Hospital to the state are part of an ongoing tussle between hospitals and state officials over Medicaid coverage for people who may be in the country illegally but qualify for the program because of medical emergencies or because they are in labor or need dialysis.

Mallory McManus, a spokeswoman for the state Agency for Health Care Administration, which oversees Medicaid, said the state paid hospitals $484.2 million to care for undocumented immigrants between July 2014 and June 2017.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[wmileo]

So much for Illegals not getting benefits and money from the Tax payers. The folks responsible should be charged with a felony.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

$484.2 million

And that's just Florida.

[Liz]

ping

[utahagen]

Every friend of mine who has worked in a hospital or spent a great deal of time in one (e.g., had a baby who spent the first year of its life in NIC/ICU) has told me it's a canard that ANYONE ever gets turned away from a hospital. People without insurance, poor, legal or illegal, all get admitted and taken care of for EVERY possible ailment. They may get transferred to other hospitals, depending on their needs, but they are NEVER tossed out on the streets. If they have cancer, they are treated; if they need surgery for anything, they are treated. A very small percentage of them eventually may receive bills for 100k...but who cares? The hospitals know they will never see a dime, and, except for patients who are middle class people with excellent credit, the collection agencies the hospitals may sell some of their debts to won't bother to go after them. And even in the small number of cases where middle class people who had no insurance and qualified for no state or local aid programs and have good credit and are chased by collection agencies...those collection agencies happily would settle for 30% of what you owe...then 20%...then 10%...keep bargaining. And if you don't even want to pay that, your chances of getting sued are very low. And if you DO get sued and file a simple response that you don't have sufficient knowledge to answer the questions without a hearing, the chances that the agency will bother proceeding to a trial are nearly zero. (But do NOT ignore a lawsuit; do file a response, or the collection agency could get a default judgment against you.)

Bottom line: what you see on Primetime TV — children with broken arms turned away from ERs because their parents don't have insurance or because they are illegal aliens — NEVER happens. It's baloney.

[DoughtyOne]

One hospital in Florida, or is that the same problem across the state?

[shanover]

The cost to Americans is in the BILLIONS. Obama: mission accomplished.

[buckalfa]

The old “disportionate share reimbursement” program where CMS (medicare and medicaid) paid hospitals for a portion of their qualifying indigent care. However, I thought the program was being phased out. The article is vague on why the reibursement is being sought — fraudulent cost reports or reporting of non qualifying services?

[morphing libertarian]

The only benefit we should give illegals is emergency medical care enough to get them home.

[Tennessee Nana]

American citizens have to pay...

[Tennessee Nana]

$484 MILLION and none of it spent on American veterans...

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

a spokeswoman for the state Agency for Health Care Administration, which oversees Medicaid, said the state paid hospitals $484.2 million to care for undocumented immigrants between July 2014 and June 2017.

It would seem to be a statewide figure. But that's just what the state overseer of Medicaid paid to hospitals. I'm sure the hospitals had to eat a very large portion of the rest.

[DoughtyOne]

I know our hospital used to.

Illegal aliens swamped eight trauma centers in Los Angeles in about 18 months closing them, years ago.