SUBJECT
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Board to authorize the County Manager to execute, on behalf of Polk County, the Low Income Pool Letter of Agreement with the State of Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, for Tri-County Human Services, Inc. behavioral health matching funds on or before the deadline of October 1, 2022. ($860,081) not-to-exceed one-time expense).
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DESCRIPTION
Since 2008, the County, through the Indigent Health Care program, has leveraged $63.4 million in match funding to draw in an additional $97.1 million in federal funding back to Polk non-profit health care organizations toward the provision of health care services to low-income Polk County residents, through the Low Income Pool program.
The Low income Pool provides government support for safety-net health care providers for the costs of uncompensated charity care for low-income individuals who are uninsured. Specifically, the program uses Intergovernmental Transfers to allow local county governments to provide matching funds on behalf of health care service providers such as non-profit hospitals and Federally Qualified Health Centers to the Agency for Health Care Administration. The Low Income Pool is authorized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services through waivers and state plan amendments.
In the State 2018/19 budget, only $20 million was allocated to the Low Income Pool for behavioral health. Polk County was not one of the ten entities eligible for the funding. AHCA has agreed to consider broadening eligibility, but it requires CMS approval and then legislative authority and funding.
In 2020, the Board lobbied the State Legislature to support modifying the Low Income Pool Special Terms and Conditions that would allow qualifying Polk County behavioral health providers to be eligible for Low Income Pool funding, therefore increasing behavioral health Low Income Pool funding as a result.
The Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) submitted a request to the Federal Centers fo...
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