Tavares, FL - June 9, 2011 - Lake County, FL Commissioners are pursuing collections for $237,000 in required Medicaid expenses from two local Lake county Hospital Tax Districts. Commissioners discovered the existence of a regulation never used that allows the County to invoice local Hospital Districts for required Medicaid payments. So, as this article indicates, they are pursuing collection of about $237,000 which will help offset budget shortfalls.
This action has been attacked by another local blog which screams that the Commissioners are "defunding" Medicaid. That is ridiculous. The invoicing was pushed through by County Commissioners Jimmy Conner, Leslie Campione and Sean Parks, who properly took fiscal action to control County costs.
All they are doing is following a previously unused Florida regulation that allows Counties to invoice local Hospital Districts for a share of Medicaid expenses previously paid by the County. This releases the budgeted money for other County spending priorities. That invoicing is a good fiscal practice, especially when the approximate $10-million in property tax revenues given to the North Lake County Hospital District are provided, as the article says, "without strings".
The real issue is that the existing County Chairperson, Jennifer Hill, and the County Attorney, Sandy Minkoff, BOTH balked at even researching or implementing the regulation last year when provided information by local activist Marilyn Bainter. Minkoff even resisted pursuing the matter this year when it was first raised by Commissioner Leslie Campione. Hill has ties to the Leesburg Regional Medical Center and clearly was supporting them rather than practicing proper fiscal practices on behalf of Lake County taxpayers.
vj
