The hospitals are Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, Lebanon; Catholic Medical Center and Elliot Health System, both in Manchester; Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, Dover; Exeter Health Resources, Exeter; Southern New Hampshire Health System and St. Joseph Hospital, both in Nashua; LRGHealthcare, Laconia; Cheshire Medical Center, Keene; and Frisbie Memorial Hospital, Rochester.
A spokesman for the CMS confirmed that the agency had received the letter.
“We are aware of the concerns of the New Hampshire hospitals and we are working with the state to address these concerns,” the CMS spokesman said in an e-mailed statement.
The reimbursement cuts in 2011, as well as in previous years, prompted the hospitals to file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Concord, N.H., last year. The hospitals have said the reimbursement cuts violated the Medicaid Act.
In March, a federal judge ruled that the state's health commissioner is required to provide notice and justification of the reduced Medicaid reimbursement rates. The state has since been granted an extension until May 7.
In the letter, the trustees said that the some hospitals “have started the process to eliminate or restrict access for Medicaid patients.” Frank McDougall Jr., vice president of government relations at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, said that the cuts have put some patients at risk of losing access to care at some of the hospitals.
“This is nothing short of a crisis,” he said.
