Scott Targets Jacksonville Hospital On LIP Issues
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MIAMI (CBSMiami/NSF) -- Florida Governor Rick Scott is asking a Jacksonville hospital to provide extensive information as the battle over Low Income Pool (LIP) funding continues.
The hospital relies more heavily on the LIP funding program than any other hospital in the state.
Scott requested the information from UF Health Jacksonville, a facility just north of downtown Jacksonville that has long served many of the city's low-income and uninsured patients.
The facility also is a teaching hospital and operates a trauma center. Scott said he is seeking the information for consideration by the Commission on Healthcare and Hospital Funding, which he created this month amid a state budget impasse that focuses heavily on health-care issues.
A key part of the impasse centers on the $2.2 billion Low Income Pool program, which is scheduled to expire June 30 unless state and federal negotiators reach agreement on an extension.
The so-called LIP program sends money to hospitals and other health providers that serve large numbers of poor and uninsured patients.
In the letter, Scott wrote that UF Health Jacksonville "appears to be more reliant on supplemental payments through the LIP program than any other hospital in Florida."
He gave the hospital until next Friday to respond to a series of questions, including questions about whether it could coordinate services with other nearby hospitals and why it is more reliant on LIP than other Florida hospitals that treat similar amounts of Medicaid patients.
(The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.)
