Just weeks before state health exchanges open for enrollment Oct. 1, groups representing the hospital industry are lobbying the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to revise an amendment to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that could leave them on the financial hook. While the amendment's full impact is unclear, hospital officials say it likely will add to their growing financial pressures -- pressures that have led to local layoffs and have prompted one southwestern Pennsylvania community hospital to cut services. At issue is a 90-day grace period afforded under ACA during which health exchange patients who have stopped paying their insurance premiums continue to have health coverage.
