Kentucky settles Medicaid dispute with 54 hospitals

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky has settled a 13-year-old dispute with 54 rural hospitals over Medicaid reimbursement rates, officials said.

Kentucky and the federal government will pay $383 million to settle with hospitals that said they were underpaid by Medicaid, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Wednesday. The state’s portion will be about $94 million and the federal government, which provides the majority of Kentucky’s Medicaid money, will pay about $289 million.

Beshear said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell helped work out a resolution with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Medicaid is a joint federal-state health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

The dispute began in 2007 when a group of rural hospitals filed a protest over a change in reimbursement that stayed in effect for several years.

Leaders of several hospital systems told news outlets they were glad to have the matter resolved.