Section 19 Hospital Assessment 2
Section 2AAAAA of said chapter 29, as appearing in the 2020 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out the second paragraph and inserting in place thereof the following paragraph:-
There shall be credited to the fund: (1) any transfers from the Health Safety Net Trust Fund established in section 66 of chapter 118E; (2) any revenue from appropriations or other money authorized by the general court and specifically designated to be credited to the fund; (3) an amount equal to any federal financial participation revenues claimed and received by the commonwealth for eligible expenditures made from the fund; and (4) interest earned on any money in the fund. Money from the fund shall be expended for payments to providers that qualify under an approved federal waiver and in accordance with said waiver. Amounts credited to the fund shall not be subject to further appropriation. At the end of each fiscal year, the secretary of health and human services shall determine, in the secretary's sole discretion, the amount of any monies in the fund that are in excess of the monies needed to make payments from the fund in accordance with said waiver, provided that the monies needed to make such payments shall include any monies needed to make any payments that are unearned as of the end of such year, but potentially earned in a subsequent year. Subject to the terms of said waiver, the secretary of health and human services shall transfer to the Health Safety Net Trust Fund established in section 66 of chapter 118E the state share of any such excess monies, multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is $62.5 million and the denominator of which is the total amount transferred to or deposited in the fund for such fund year, excluding any federal funds. Money remaining in the fund at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert to the General Fund and shall be available for expenditure in subsequent fiscal years. To accommodate timing discrepancies between the receipt of revenue and related expenditures, the comptroller may certify for payment amounts not to exceed the most recent revenue estimates as certified by the secretary of health and human services to be transferred, credited or deposited under this section.
Summary
This section, along with twenty others, implements an increased and restructured hospital assessment that divides hospitals into five groups, assigning two different rates for each group (inpatient and outpatient), for a five-year term.