Florida Counties Seek Progress in Billing Dispute with State

June 6, 2012

Florida's counties are making some headway in lessening the impact of a new law requiring them to refund disputed Medicaid payments back to the state.

County officials have been meeting with the Agency for Health Care Administration, Florida's Medicaid administrator, to develop a rule that would soften some of the thornier provisions of House Bill 5301, passed in the recent legislative session. 

Still, 53 of the state's 67 counties are continuing with a lawsuit aimed at overturning the measure.

The state is allowing counties to make payments early and provide detail on charges that are in dispute, which lets them to avoid reductions in revenue-sharing payments.    Under HB 5301, counties will soon be required to begin refunding the backlog of payments from previous years.

At a recent rulemaking meeting with state officials, counties detailed a number of issues that needed clarification. Chief among them was that bills more than four years old should be dropped, or else calculate the amounts owed the state based on rules in place at the time payments were made.

The counties are also working on determining why so many prior payments are in dispute, and are seeking access to state databases to verify information on patients for which the counties provided care.