GAO Questions Hospital DSH Payments

A recent Government Accountability Office report sheds light on the big differences between federal disproportionate share hospital payment spending by showing that California, Illinois, Maryland and Missouri exceeded uncompensated-care costs, as well as how Tennessee's DSH payments represented 0.7-percent of its Medicaid funding and Maine's payments represented nearly 97-percent of Medicaid funding. This report comes just as Congress to looking at how to tackle the looming cuts to DSH payments starting in October. The report also shows that in 40 states, DSH payments make up less than 20-percent of hospital Medicaid payments and eight states exceed 20-percent. To read the full report, click here.

• In another report, GAO found that CMS' Medicare Plan Finder misses the mark on actually helping Medicare beneficiaries find plans citing that it was "difficult for beneficiaries to use and provides incomplete information," click here.