Tagged: hospital lawsuit

Attorneys for the state and for ten N.H. hospitals are in federal court this week. The hospitals are suing the state over major cuts in Medicaid they say are impacting medical services for low income patients.

Ten of the state’s largest hospitals say that $130 million in state Medicaid cuts is not only forcing hospitals to cut services to the poor, but they are also illegal. Gordon Macdonald is the hospital’s attorney.

“The state didn’t consider what effect these rates would have on access to care for New Hampshire citizens. And at some point the Medicaid rates get so low that providers cannot sustain it.”

There’s a lot of tension between New Hampshire and hospitals in the state right now.

The source of the problem....money, of course.

Thursday morning the two sides clashed in federal court over a cut in how much the state pays to treat low-income patients.

And then this afternoon, lawmakers drilled down on a tax dispute with some of the hospitals.

Even before the budget passed in June the state’s relationship with hospitals was strained.

But by the time the dust settled the relationship had been put in the ICU.

See, to balance the budget, lawmakers had taken $120 million dollars that had been earmarked for low-income Medicaid patients.

Hospital attorney Scott O’Connell says that last move was just too much.