Hilltop Research on Medicaid Provider Taxes Featured in the New York Times

Abstract

A New York Times article released today titled “G.O.P. Targets a Medicaid Loophole Used by 49 States to Grab Federal Money” features Hilltop’s analysis of the potential impact of eliminating the 6% Medicaid provider tax safe harbor threshold. Hilltop Director of Analytics and Research Dr. Morgan Henderson, Senior Data Scientist Dr. Leigh Goetschius, and Interim Executive Director Alice Middleton use provider tax rates and net patient revenue data and find that eliminating the 6% provider tax threshold for hospitals and nursing facilities would put $83.7 billion of federal Medicaid funding at risk. Crucially, this would not impact states equally, and would potentially jeopardize over 30% of total Medicaid federal funding for certain states (Mississippi, South Carolina, Utah, Alabama, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and Iowa). This is the latest in a series of Hilltop analyses focused on modeling state-level impacts of potential federal Medicaid policy changes; click here for other analysis on work requirements and FMAP floor changes.