Medicaid DSH Reporting Rule Legislation Introduced - December 15, 2009

On December 9, Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA) introduced H.R. 4250, the Medicaid DSH Integrity Act, to roll back the substantive changes to Medicaid DSH policy implemented as part of the Medicaid DSH Auditing and Reporting Rule finalized last December. The amendment would require CMS to issue a rule stating that it does not intend to enforce any changes in policy related to the calculation of hospital-specific DSH limits. Among other things, the bill would permit states to include in the DSH calculation the costs of services to individuals with no insurance for a particular service, and to use the definition of allowable DSH costs in their Medicaid state plans. Five additional members of the Louisiana delegation—Reps. Alexander, Boustany, Cao, Cassidy and Fleming—cosponsored the bill.