Florida Hospital Agrees To Absorb Costs of Providing Liver Transplants to Medicaid Beneficiaries, Uninsured

Under an agreement endorsed March 14 by the Miami-based Jackson Memorial Hospital board, uninsured Broward County residents and Medicaid beneficiaries would be able to receive subsidized liver transplants at Fort Lauderdale-based Broward General Medical Center, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. The agreement calls for Jackson Memorial surgeons to perform the transplants at Broward General. Jackson Memorial had denied transplants for Medicaid beneficiaries and uninsured individuals living outside Miami-Dade County because Miami-Dade County imposes a 0.5% sales tax to fund indigent health care services, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Arthur Hertz, treasurer of the Miami-Dade County Public Health Trust, said, "It's been a sticky problem. It isn't fair to the taxpayers of [Miami-]Dade County to take on the obligation of patients from outside their county." Under the compromise, Broward General has agreed to subsidize the cost of liver transplants for Broward County Medicaid beneficiaries and uninsured residents. Liver transplants cost at least $110,000, $15,000 of which is covered by Medicaid. The agreement still needs approval from state regulators and the United Network for Organ Sharing. Broward General also might agree to absorb some of the costs of liver transplants for Medicaid beneficiaries and the uninsured in Palm Beach County, but that arrangement has not been worked out yet (LaMendola, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 3/15).