On April 12, the Mississippi Supreme Court ordered the state's Medicaid program to pay $2 million to 12 hospitals due to inadequate reimbursement for radiology and laboratory services, according to a report published by the Clarion Ledger.
In 2010, Medicaid notified the hospitals that they had been overpaid in 2001 and requested to be reimbursed. But in an October 2016 suit, the hospitals sued Medicaid, stating that, in fact, they had been underpaid by $2 million that year due to an inaccurate calculation of hospital payment for outpatient services.
"[Medicaid] recalculated the ratio to include charges for radiology and laboratory services and to substitute a portion of the hospitals' claimed costs with Medicare blended payment amounts," the court decision said. "The recalculation caused the hospitals' costs to be understated and the charges to be overstated, reducing their overall reimbursement rate. This was a clear violation of the language of the state plan."
