The four hospitals are Baxter Health, Fulton County Hospital, Arkansas Methodist Medical Center, and Howard Memorial Hospital. Arkansas was awarded $1.57 billion in American Rescue Plan state fiscal recovery funds, and the unallocated balance will decline to $332.4 million if the Legislative Council approves these latest requests on Friday, according to Scott Hardin, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance and Administration.
“We’re seeing across the state the implications of a really difficult financial period for hospitals,” said Brian Tabor, president of the Indians Hospital Association. “We’re also seeing increased demand with Medicaid enrollment growing substantially.” Those financial straits mean patients who used to make Beacon their first stop will instead go to other clinics and health centers. Among those impacted by this development are clients who use South Bend’s Center for the Homeless.
Lawmakers in Pennsylvania on Wednesday gave final approval to budget-related legislation that boosts Medicaid subsidies for hospitals and ambulance services. The bill passed the House 199-4 and heads to Gov. Josh Shapiro's desk. It passed the Senate unanimously Tuesday, as partisans have clashed over some remaining elements of the state's $45 billion budget plan since July. Under the bill, lawmakers reauthorized an assessment on hospitals that's expected to draw down roughly $1.4 billion in matching federal Medicaid dollars this year.
This action follows the growth in Medicaid patients growing to two million after the pandemic. Beacon aims to move Medicaid patients from seven of Beacon's primary care practices, some within St. Joseph, Elkhart and LaPorte, by partnering with Heart Linc and Heart City Health to transfer these patients.
The company did not specify how many shares it plans to offer or what share price it is targeting. Waystar manages medical billing for approximately 30,000 clients, representing around 1 million different providers and almost 50% of patients in the United States.
State lawmakers are holding rallies across the state to get support for legislation regarding ambulance billing that is now on the governor's desk waiting to be signed. Area representatives said the new bill called "direct pay" would streamline the process for reimbursing ambulance service providers and "remove unnecessary burdens from patients."