GARNETT — Anderson County Hospital and other healthcare facilities in state that provide care to Medicaid patients will soon lose money because Gov. Mark Parkinson has ordered the state to to cut Medicaid payments by 10 percent to cover a budget gap. Medicaid is the U.S. health program for eligible individuals and families with low incomes that is jointly funded by the states and federal government, and is managed by each individual state. If Kansas cuts payments by 10 percent, Anderson County Hospital CEO Denny Hachenberg told the Anderson County Review that it will lose $200,000 per year. The payment cuts affects hospital, clinic and long term care payments as well as the funding that the hospital receives to offset cost of care for the poor, he said. Because the federal payments are tied to state spending, for every $3 the state cuts, it loses an additional $7 in federal funding, Hachenberg said.
