Congress Passes, President Signs FMAP Extension - August 11, 2010

On August 10, President Obama signed a six-month extension of enhanced federal Medicaid funding for states (FMAP) as part of a “jobs/state aid” package. The legislation made its way to the president’s desk after the Senate passed the measure in a surprise move the previous week. After making concessions to moderate Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) joined the majority Democrats in supporting the measure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called that chamber back to Washington from its summer recess for a special one-day session to pass the bill. The final law is fully paid for, and includes a scaled-down version of enhanced Medicaid benefits. The FMAP increase is reduced from the current 6.2 percentage point enhancement to 3.2 percentage points for the first additional quarter (January - March 2011) and 1.2 percentage points for the second quarter (April – June 2011). States with high unemployment will continue to receive additional funding for the six-month extension, as they do under current law. NAPH would like to thank all of its member hospitals for working to help pass this top legislative priority.

Both chambers of Congress are scheduled to remain in recess until Mid-September.