Florida Gov. Rick Scott recommended cutting the state's Medicaid budget by $2.1 billion. Most of that savings, part of a $66.4 billion budget proposal, would come from changing the way hospitals are paid for treating Medicaid patients.
“No program has grown as fast and as much as Medicaid, and we must find a way to control the cost,” Scott said in a news release. Scott, once chairman and CEO of hospital chain Columbia/HCA, described the proposed changes to Medicaid reimbursement as “paying similar rates for the same procedures in similar hospitals.”