Florida Senate Leaders Press for Change in Hospital Funding

A proposal to redistribute hundreds of millions of dollars away from safety-net hospitals and toward increasing base Medicaid payments at all hospitals drew opposition in the Florida Senate.

But Senate Republican leaders were able to beat back a proposed amendment by Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D- Miami, that would have scrapped the plan and maintained current law, which directs upward of $318 million in enhanced Medicaid payments to 28 hospitals with Medicaid caseloads of 25 percent or greater.

Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Chairwoman Anitere Flores, R-Miami, said the budget plan is a fair redistribution of what she called “special project funds” and said it's something the Legislature should have done years ago.