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Commissioners vote to join multi-county hospital funding consortium; appoint county representative
Summary
Hocking County commissioners approved a resolution to join a multi-county consortium designed to increase federal Medicaid reimbursement to a local hospital and appointed a commissioner to represent the county in the effort.
The Hocking County Board of Commissioners on June 5 approved a resolution to join a multi-county consortium that will collect a locally assessed tax from participating hospitals to seek enhanced federal Medicaid reimbursements, and the board appointed a county commissioner as the local representative to the consortium.
Commissioners described the structure presented at the meeting: participating hospitals would pay a locally assessed tax to the county, which would forward funds to a managing county auditor. Those funds would then be used to generate state and federal reimbursement dollars for Medicaid, with the stated intent of increasing total reimbursement to participating hospitals. Commissioners said the mechanism has been used in other states (including Texas and Florida) and in several Ohio counties.
Meeting discussion noted that hospital officials — the CEO and CFO — had endorsed the plan. Commissioners stated the tax would be paid by the hospital and would not be passed on to patients; they described the approach as a way to increase federal reimbursements to offset low Medicaid rates, which one commissioner characterized as reimbursements at about 73% of cost for some services.
The board approved a motion to adopt the resolution to join the consortium and later approved a second motion to appoint a county representative to serve on the consortium; both motions carried. The transcript records a roll-call vote during the resolution motion with names given as spoken in the meeting.
Why it matters: County participation could change how Hocking Valley Community Hospital (referred to in the meeting as the local hospital) accesses matching funds and federal reimbursement for Medicaid services. Commissioners said the change is intended to improve hospital cash flow and reimbursement levels, not to shift costs to patients.
Next steps: The county will transmit its signed resolution as required and a designated commissioner will represent Hocking County in the consortium’s governance and coordination activities. The managing county auditor named in the meeting was described as handling fund administration and applications for reimbursement on behalf of participating counties.
