The Florida First District Court of Appeal courthouse in Tallahassee. (Photo by Michael Moline/Florida Phoenix)
In a ruling that could have widespread ripple effects for hospitals across the state, a Tallahassee appeals court has blocked the state from clawing back Medicaid payments from hospitals that provided state pre-authorized emergency health care to undocumented immigrants.
The ruling upholds a previous decision on claw backs the court made in 2019 in a case known as Gulf Coast Medical Center versus the Agency for Health Care Administration. The hospital is part of the Lee Memorial Health System. A 2020 legislative staff analysis suggests the ruling would require the state to drop 42 Medicaid fraud cases against hospitals and result in the loss of nearly $13.5 million to the state at that time.
A three-judge panel of the Florida First District Court of Appeal had ruled t hat the state cannot retroactively audit hospitals for providing emergency care to undocumented citizens that the state initially approved.