A lawsuit filed yesterday by a Boston hospital could foreshadow what’s to come nationally as the federal government looks to expand health insurance coverage. Boston Medical Center, which sees many low-income patients, alleges that the state is illegally cutting its Medicaid payments in order to finance the state program that aims to make health insurance universal, the Boston Globe reports. The state now pays BMC $9,323 per Medicaid patient, down from the $12,476 per patient last year. The state came to that figure by calculating the average cost of caring for a Medicaid patient at hospitals in the state and paying 75% of the average to “encourage efficiency”, says the Globe. Massachusetts, as we have written about extensively, has been

closely watched by the rest of the country in its efforts to fund universal health-care coverage . This new lawsuit illustrates how tricky it is to implement cuts to one part of the medical system — in this case, hospitals — to help fund other parts. The law requires that the state pay hospitals that treat a number of poor patients based on the facility’s individual needs, and BMC’s needs are high, the hospital contends. For instance, it employs 75 translators since 30% of its patients don’t speak English. The state says that BMC should cut its costs. Map via Wikimedia Commons

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In Universal Health Insurance Spat, Mass. Hospital Sues State