NORTHEAST

CONCORD, N.H.— The trustees of 10 hospitals in New Hampshire that have sued the state over reductions in Medicaid reimbursements are now asking the CMS to intervene. In an April 26 letter to CMS Deputy Administrator Cindy Mann, 166 trustees said the state cut Medicaid funding and disproportionate share payments by more than $130 million in the current fiscal year. “The New Hampshire program has been pushed past the breaking point, and federal invention is now necessary to stop any further deterioration of the Medicaid delivery system,” they wrote. The hospitals are 371-bed DartmouthHitchcock Health, Lebanon; 233-bed Catholic Medical Center and 264-bed Elliot Health System, both in Manchester; 134-bed Wentworth-douglass Hospital, Dover; 97-bed Exeter Health Resources, Exeter; 166-bed Southern New Hampshire Health System and 144-bed St. Joseph Hospital, both in Nashua; 110-bed Lrghealthcare, Laconia; 140-bed Cheshire Medical Center, Keene; and 82bed Frisbie Memorial Hospital, Rochester. A CMS spokesman confirmed that the agency received the letter and said in an e-mailed statement that it is “working with the state to address these concerns.” The reimbursement cuts in 2011, as well as in previous years, prompted the hospitals to file a lawsuit last year in U.S. District Court in Concord, alleging the reimbursement cuts violated the Medicaid Act. In March, a federal judge ruled that the state’s health commissioner is required to provide notice and justification of the reduced Medicaid reimbursement rates. The state has since been granted an extension until May 7.