2012 New Hampshire Revised Statutes
Title XII - PUBLIC SAFETY AND WELFARE
Chapter 167 - PUBLIC ASSISTANCE TO BLIND, AGED, OR DISABLED PERSONS, AND TO DEPENDENT CHILDREN
Section 167:64 - Uncompensated Care Fund.

    167:64 Uncompensated Care Fund. –
    I. There is hereby established in the state treasury an uncompensated care fund which shall consist of the moneys collected pursuant to RSA 84-A. Investment earnings of the fund shall be credited to the fund. Moneys paid into the fund shall be exempt from any state budget reductions, and the commissioner is authorized to expend these funds, together with matching federal funds, as follows:
       (a) The commissioner may provide reimbursement for uncompensated care costs in accordance with the approved schedule of payments through either Medicaid rate adjustments or disproportionate share hospital payment adjustments, or a combination thereof. Funds available under this section shall also be used to make medical provider payments and to support the state's Medicaid enhancement tax unrestricted revenue account, in amounts directed by the budget in each year of the biennium. Expenditure of revenues deposited to the uncompensated care fund shall be made in the following order of priority:
          (1) To support medical provider payments as budgeted in each year of the biennium;
          (2) To ensure that critical access hospitals receive reimbursement for reported uncompensated care costs at the rate of 100 percent of the individual hospital limit or at the highest uniform percentage that available funding would permit should funds be inadequate to cover 100 percent of the hospital limit for disproportionate share payments as determined by the commissioner consistent with the provisions of 42 U.S.C. section 1396r-4(g) and any relevant federal regulations promulgated thereunder;
          (3) To support the state's Medicaid enhancement tax unrestricted revenue account as budgeted in each year of the biennium; and
          (4) If authorized, to reimburse non-critical access hospitals at the highest uniform percentage of each hospital's disproportionate share hospital payment limit as the funds made available under this section permit and are consistent with the requirements of 42 U.S.C. section 1396r-4(g) and any relevant federal regulations promulgated thereunder.
       (b) The commissioner is hereby authorized and directed to develop and implement, in connection with the payment by the state to hospitals for reimbursement of uncompensated care costs, a schedule of payments for reimbursement of the uncompensated care costs of those hospitals that are subject to the tax liability imposed under RSA 84-A and that participate in the state Medicaid program. The reimbursement of uncompensated care costs paid in state fiscal year 2012 and state fiscal year 2013 shall be in accordance with the schedule of payments to hospitals that takes effect on or after July 1, 2011, subject to the prior review and approval of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and shall be structured in a manner that is consistent with all federal laws and regulations governing (i) Title XIX disproportionate share hospital payment adjustments and other rate payments, (ii) conditions for receiving federal financial participation, and (iii) permissible sources of state financial participation as provided for under 42 C.F.R. part 433 and all other applicable federal regulations.
       (c) For purposes of this section, uncompensated care costs shall include: any charity care cost, and any portion of Medicaid-covered patient care costs unreimbursed by Medicaid payments, that the commissioner determines would meet the criteria under 42 U.S.C. section 1396r-4(g) governing hospital-specific limits on disproportionate share hospital payments under Title XIX of the Social Security Act and the provisions of all federal regulations promulgated thereunder.
       (d) One percent of the funds made available for uncompensated care payments shall be placed in a separate class line reserved for the expenses of the department in administering this subdivision.
    II. Moneys in the uncompensated care fund shall be continually appropriated to the department for the purposes of this subdivision.
    III. The balance of the moneys remaining in the fund at the end of each fiscal year shall lapse into the general fund.

Source. 1991, 299:5; 390:6, 7. 1993, 4:10-12, 16, IV; 358:8. 1994, 122:8, eff. May 11, 1994. 2009, 144:212, eff. July 1, 2009. 2011, 224:36, eff. July 1, 2011.