Hospitals throughout Florida are challenging a state rule that limits payments to treat undocumented immigrants. The hospitals say the Agency for Health Care Administration made the rule without following the proper procedures and unfairly wants them to reimburse the state for some of the Medicaid payments used to treat immigrants who are in the United States illegally. At issue is a technical dispute over how much Medicaid pays for emergency services and when an emergency patient turns into a "stable" patient still in need of care. AHCA's position is that Medicaid covers emergency care for undocumented patients, but not the ongoing treatment needed to keep the patient stable.
