Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown is asking the feds to bypass Tallahassee and work directly with the city to keep the UF Health Jacksonville open.
The hospital receives around $95 million a year from a federal program called LIP that covers uninsured, low-income patients. The LIP program is set to expire at the end of June.
In a letter Wednesday to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Brown requested a meeting “as quickly as possible” to find an innovative solution.
READ: Mayor Brown's letter to Secretary Burwell.
Florida Governor Rick Scott recently met with Burwell to request a LIP extension, but he was unsuccessful. The federal government wants Florida to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act — something Scott and the Florida House of Representatives refuse to do.
