Wisconsin State Journal: "Wisconsin's rural hospitals hope to offset a state Medicaid cut with a tax that would bring more federal money to the hospitals. The proposed tax on the state's 59 'critical access' hospitals, all in rural areas, would prevent the hospitals from closing important services, officials say. The tax would be similar to a tax adopted in February on the state's 72 non-rural hospitals, said Eric Borgerding, a lobbyist with the Wisconsin Hospital Association. The proposed rural hospital tax, in a bill to be introduced in the Legislature soon, would make up for a 10 percent Medicaid cut that started Friday, Borgerding said. The cut, of $15 million over two years, is part of $625 million in planned reductions over that period to the recession-strained, $6 billion-a-year Medicaid program, the state-federal health plan for the poor. The tax, of about 1.6 percent of patient revenues, would bring about $10 million a year in additional federal Medicaid matching funds to the rural hospitals, Borgerding said" (Walhberg, 1/4).
The (Springfield, Mass.) Republican reports: "Smoking has dropped 13 percent among lower-income smokers in Springfield during the first 2½ years of a new state benefit to reduce tobacco use, according to an analysis by the state Department of Public Health. Under the benefit, people enrolled in the state's Medicaid health insurance program get virtually free counseling and medications to help them quit cigarettes. Medicaid recipients in Massachusetts have been eligible for anti-smoking coverage since July 2006. Statewide smoking rates among Medicaid recipients in the study fell by 26 percent" (Ring, 1/4).