HOSPITAL CARE ASSURANCE PROGRAM

The Hospital Care Assurance Program (HCAP) is the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services' mechanism for meeting the federal requirement to provide additional payments to hospitals that provide a disproportionate share of uncompensated services to the indigent and uninsured.

The current HCAP program meets the federal requirement that the assessment rate be uniform across all non-psychiatric hospital providers and that at least 10% of the hospitals receive less than their assessed amount in HCAP funding.

For Federal Fiscal Year 2008 HCAP, the following structure of assessments and federal funds will be used:                          

NEWS

For more information, please visit our most recent Frequently Asked Questions about HCAP rules, eligibility, and procedures.

1/23/2008:: The 2008 federal poverty income guidelines were published in the federal register today. Updated annually by the US Dept. of Health & Human Services, the guidelines are used in a variety of ways to judge eligibility for discounted health care programs, including HCAP. Hospitals should assess HCAP eligibility based on the income guidelines in place on the date of service or admission.

12/20/07:: Last week, both the OHA Finance Committee and OHA Board of Trustees voted to approve the final recommendations of OHA's HCAP Task Force on Principles & Goals for program year 2008.  The Task Force recommended two changes to HCAP for next year, including:

• That for the 2008 program year and beyond, OHA advocate for the use of already collected, actual Medicaid managed care payment data in both OBRA cap calculations and in the distribution; and
• That for the 2008 program year and beyond, OHA advocate for technical changes to the DSH Limit Pot (Pot 6), to reflect the total funds available in HCAP 2008.

The recommendations are the result of a year-long process of membership meetings and discussions between the HCAP Task Force and members of the state administration.  Please check back for updates on the status of the Task Force recommendations as the new year progresses.

10/25/07:: FAQ 5.2 has been clarified and expanded.  Please see the FAQ page for more details.

9/27/07:: Three new FAQs have been added (2.2c, 2.6b, and 2.11), and three others have been updated (5.1, 5.2, and 7.7b).  Please visit the FAQ page to see what's new.

9/19/07:: Though ODJFS did not present a new distribution model at today's public hearing on HCAP 2008 as announced, two OHA representatives, Senior Vice President John Callender and Manager of Health Policy Ryan Biles, testified at the hearing on behalf of Ohio hospitals.  OHA representatives outlined the importance of protecting HCAP to hospitals, which count on the federal funding to allow them to continue to provide free care to individuals under the poverty line, withstand losses from Medicaid shortfalls and provide uncompensated care to the uninsured.  For more information, please see John Callender's Testimony and Ryan Biles' Testimony (Attachment 1; Attachment 2) .

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