A. A hospital may submit eligible claims to the department on or before April 1 of each year for payment from the fund by June 30 of each year in an amount determined pursuant to this section.
B. A claim submitted by a hospital for payment from the fund shall be deemed an eligible claim if it is for:
(1) uncovered hospital charges of five thousand dollars ($5,000) or more for an illness of a medically indigent patient;
(2) hospital charges incurred within the twelve months immediately prior to the applicable April 1 closing deadline; and
(3) an amount determined by subtracting from the base claim the medically indigent patient's deductible and then reducing the resulting balance, based on the hospital's medicare cost-to-charge ratio, to an amount equal to medicare allowable costs.
C. The department shall pay from the fund to each hospital the amount of each eligible claim if there is sufficient money in the fund. If there is not sufficient money in the fund to pay all eligible claims of hospitals for that year, the amount of each claim that shall be paid shall be an amount derived from multiplying the full amount of the eligible claim by the percentage derived from dividing the balance in the fund, after administrative costs have been subtracted, by the sum of the eligible claims.
History: Laws 1990, ch. 93, § 5.