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25 CFO / FINANCE New Hampshire officials, hospitals arrange 7-year deal over uncompensated care: 5 things to know By Kelly Gooch N ew Hampshire officials and the state's hospitals have worked out a deal on uncompensated care payments, ac- cording to a Concord Monitor report. Here are five things to know about the deal: 1. e seven-year agreement was negotiated by New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse, R-Salem, and others. 2. It comes aer a district court ruling issued in March that voided a 2017 federal rule. e ruling, which CMS has appealed, essentially determined New Hampshire and other states inappropriately applied to hospitals a federal formula used to determine uncompensated care payments, Concord Monitor reported. 3. e ruling forced New Hampshire to set aside more money — as much as $36 million more in fiscal year 2018 and $37 million in fiscal year 2019 — not previously anticipat- ed in its budget. e new deal includes lesser amounts: $22.1 million in fiscal year 2018 and $22.5 million in fiscal year 2019, according to the report. 4. e Concord Monitor reported the state and hospitals also have found a new uncompen- sated care funding formula. Under the new uncompensated care funding formula, New Hampshire will pay hospitals about 90 percent of the Medicaid enhancement taxes they pay annually, according to the report. A federal match then doubles the payments. A slightly more complex formula will begin in fiscal year 2020. 5. New Hampshire GOP Gov. Chris Sununu is expected to sign the seven-year agreement, which is part of New Hampshire's omnibus spending bill, according to the report. n Cone Health, Randolph Health merger is off By Kelly Gooch R andolph Health, a 145-bed facility in Asheboro, N.C., and Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Health no longer plan to merge. The organizations revealed the news in a joint statement May 31, about 15 months after beginning their due diligence in exploring affiliation possibilities. "This was a difficult decision, but one that we believe to be in the best long-term interests of Cone Health," said Cone Health CEO Terry Akin. "After much consideration, we found that combining our organizations would require that many current and future Cone Health priorities and projects would need to be scaled back or put on hold. Cone Health's overall strategic commitments and our current competitive environment do not give us the latitude to move forward with Randolph health at the present time." Steve Eblin, CEO of Randolph Health, expressed disappointment that the merger is off, but optimism about the future. "While we regret we will not be fully integrated into Cone Health, they re- main our management partner, and we remain committed to delivering quality healthcare to the communities we serve," he said. Randolph Health began eyeing other potential merger partners after realiz- ing the Cone Health deal was in jeopardy, Mr. Eblin said, and other organiza- tions have expressed interest. He didn't identify those organizations Cone Health and Randolph Health agreed to begin exploring affiliation pos- sibilities in March 2017. Two months later, the organizations signed a letter of intent to partner. Had the agreement gone through, it was anticipated that Cone Health would have committed more than $100 million toward improvements at Randolph Health. n Utah TV station raises donations to pay off $2.5M worth of medical debt By Ayla Ellison A charity campaign launched by KUTV, a Salt Lake City television sta- tion, will help pay off medical debt owed by hundreds of people in Utah. The TV station launched the donation drive with the help of RIP Medical Debt, which buys medical debt for pennies on the dollar and then forgives the debt. After the TV station aired a report about how it raised $1.4 million to pay off the medical debt of more than 500 people, more donations began rolling in. KUTV raised more than $25,000, which will be used to pay off $2.5 million worth of medical debt. RIP Medical Debt is the same organization comedian John Oliver partnered with when he formed a debt collection business in 2016 and bought then forgave nearly $15 million in medical debt. Earlier this year, KIRO-TV, a CBS-affiliated TV station in Seattle, partnered with RIP Medical Debt to pay off $1 million worth of medical debt, and a Texas church partnered with the company to pay off $10.5 million in medical debt. n