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Collin County amends local hospital payment rate from 3.5% to 6%
Summary
After a public hearing, Commissioners Court approved raising the mandatory payment rate for the FY2025 Local Provider Participation Program from 3.5% to 6% to unlock federal reimbursements for private hospitals serving low-income patients.
Collin County Commissioners Court on Wednesday approved an amendment to the FY2025 Local Provider Participation Program that raises the mandatory payment rate private hospitals pay on annual net patient revenue from 3.5% to 6%.
The change was the subject of a public hearing before the court. County staff called forward consultants from Almonte Healthcare Ventures, who described how hospital contributions to the county program can trigger federal matching funds to reimburse hospitals for uncompensated care. "We're here today in support of the request to increase the mandatory payment rate for the private hospitals, the local provider participation fund," said Michael Neal of Almonte Healthcare Ventures.
Neal said the program uses hospital dollars, not county general revenue, to "unlock federal funds to pay them back for the services they provide for the poorest of the poor in your county here." He identified participating hospital systems as including HCA Medical City, Children’s Health, and Texas Health Resources, which operate facilities in Plano, Frisco and McKinney.
After closing the public hearing with no speakers from the public, a member of the court moved to approve the amendment and the motion was seconded. The court then voted to approve the amendment. The transcript records the motion and the clerk’s announcement that the motion carried; a specific roll-call tally was not provided in the public transcript.
Court members did not adopt additional conditions on the rate change in the recorded discussion. The court also noted the procedural step of opening both the public hearing and the subsequent action item to ensure the record was complete before taking the vote.
What this does and does not do: the amendment sets the county’s annual mandatory payment rate at 6% for the Local Provider Participation Program for FY2025. The consultants emphasized that the county is setting a rate hospitals will pay and that the program relies on hospitals contributing funds that are matched with federal Medicaid financing. The court did not vote on related spending authorizations in the recorded discussion; the action recorded is the rate amendment itself.
Officials and consultants present said the change is intended to increase federal reimbursements to private hospitals that treat low-income and uninsured patients in Collin County. The county did not describe in the public record a projected dollar amount of additional federal funds or a hospital-specific contribution total; those figures were not specified in the transcript.
