The CEO of Nashville General Hospital says money from a federal tax bill will help offset the cost of treating uninsured patients better than when the state operated under Tenncare.
Earlier this month, Congress passed a broad tax bill that, among other things, restored what’s known as “DISH,” or disproportionate-share payments to Tennessee hospitals that treat a large number of poor and uninsured patients. The DISH payments were suspended when Tenncare was created. Instead the state compensated hospitals for lost revenue at a lower rate. With the reinstatement of DISH payments, hospitals could see more money to put towards charity care.
Dr. Reginald Coopwood is Nashville General’s CEO. He says now the state must come up with a formula to distribute $131 million in DISH payments to hospitals across the state.
“Even without knowing the dispersement formula, it’s encouraging because if you change the formula to have a little better weighting for the uninsured, I can only think that we will fare a little better than the four million dollars we received from the state.”
Earlier this year, Coopwood said that $18 million in DISH payments would help put the financially troubled hospital back on track. Coopwood now says he doesn’t expect that much of an increase, though he hopes the federal government will eventually disperse that much.
State healthcare officials are currently working on the distribution formula, which must be approved by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
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