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Hospital provider fee bill heads to governor's desk

A bill to help keep Georgia’s hospitals afloat receives final passage in the state House and is now headed to the governor’s desk.
The measure renews for another three years the fee hospitals pay into the Indigent Care Trust Fund.
The 1.4 percent provider fee generates $300 million dollars each year that, in turn, draws down $600 million in matching Medicaid funding. Without it, Gov. Nathan Deal says it would have left a $900 million hole in the budget.
David Tatum, chief public policy officer for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, says CHOA is the largest beneficiary of the fee.
“Without it we had estimated we could lose tens of millions of dollars,” he tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.
Tatum says while not renewing the fee would have forced CHOA to make some tough decisions, it likely would have forced some rural hospitals to close.
Deal’s office says he plans to sign the bill into law next Tuesday.

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