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Wichita County sets 2025 hospital participation rate at 5.76% to access federal matching funds
Summary
After a public hearing with United Regional, the Wichita County Commissioners Court adopted a resolution setting the fiscal year 2025 mandatory payment rate for the local Health Care Provider Participation Program at 5.76% of net patient revenue to enable access to federal matching dollars.
The Wichita County Commissioners Court voted 5-0 on Jan. 28 to set the county's fiscal year 2025 mandatory payment rate for the Wichita County Health Care Provider Participation Program at 5.76% of net patient revenue.
The rate, approved after a public hearing, is intended to allow local private hospitals to pool local funds into a county-administered Local Provider Participation Fund (LPPF) that is used to draw federal matching dollars to offset unreimbursed costs of caring for Medicaid and self-pay patients. Bob Hirt, chief financial officer of United Regional, said the county-administered program is a vehicle hospitals use statewide to access federal funding.
Hirt said, "these matching dollars allow the hospital to access federal dollars, that help us, pay for some of the un reimbursed cost associated with caring for Medicaid patients and self funded patients." He said the program stems from legislation passed by the state legislature in 2019 that created a mechanism for local participation funds to access federal matches.
The court opened a public hearing on the proposed rate at 10:07 a.m., received no public comments on the matter, and closed the hearing before voting. Commissioner Mahler moved to approve the resolution; Commissioner Beauchamp seconded. The motion passed unanimously; the court recorded the result as "motion carries 5-0." The county auditor and treasurer were noted earlier in the record as participants in administering the program.
County officials clarified the program's flow: local hospital funds are deposited into the LPPF, sent to the state, which forwards requests to the federal government; some returned dollars come directly to hospitals and some flow through managed-care organizations. Hirt said the county receives a modest administrative fee for managing the paperwork for the program; he described the fee as approximately $20,000 and said it "just barely offsets the cost" of managing the program.
Hirt responded to questions from the court about whether the state session in Austin was expected to change the LPPF mechanism and said he had not heard of planned changes. He also told the court that the program's required percentage can vary year to year depending on federal/state matching formulas (FMAP) and other program-level calculations.
The resolution adopted by the court sets the mandatory payment at 5.76% for fiscal year 2025. No county levies or general property tax changes were proposed as part of the resolution; the action was limited to setting the provider participation rate and directing county staff to execute the program mechanics as previously discussed.
