Review of Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital Payment Distribution

June 5, 2010 On June 22, 2010, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a recommendation that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) evaluate how the Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments are distributed among hospital categories. The OIG recommends that CMS consider requesting congressional legislation to assure a more even distribution of payments based on uncompensated care costs. OIG analyzed the relationship between DSH payments and uncompensated care costs of four hospital categories in seven states for the fiscal years 2003 through 2007. The hospital categories reviewed were: State-owned institutions for mental disease (IMDs), other State . . .