Stimulus package includes moratorium on Medicaid changes

Hospital officials seem to be in luck. The $790 billion economic stimulus package, which has now been agreed upon in principle by lawmakers after a contentious debate, included a number of items that they'd hoped to see pass.

These items include an extension of a moratorium on Medicaid regulations that they argued would cut their funding, moving the deadline up from March 31 to June 30. The stimulus package also proposes a temporary $87 billion increase for the federal share of Medicaid funding, along with a temporary increase of $500 million for disproportionate share hospitals.

In addition, the package also includes a measure that would block a scheduled Medicare pay cut for teaching hospitals.

Other health-related items in the package include $19 billion to provide incentives for health IT adoption, and $21 billion to subsidize health plan premiums for workers paying through the COBRA program.

To get more background on legislative developments:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece [1] (reg. req.)

Related Articles:
Governors call for healthcare stimulus plan [2]
Hospital groups seek moratorium on Medicaid regs [3]
State governors ask for Medicaid help [4]