The UF Health hospital in downtown Jacksonville is no longer in immediate danger of closing. That’s what CEO Russ Armistead told the Governor’s Commission on Healthcare and Hospital Funding at its stop in Jacksonville on Wednesday morning.
Armistead said, “Thanks to the Legislature and the governor, the LIP funding, which was 95 million dollars, we essentially got all of that for the current year. So we are funded. We’re good to go.”
Armistead says, after months of uncertainty over a government subsidy for poor and uninsured patients, UF Healthcare Jacksonville can once more focus on the future.
The federal government is phasing out its Low Income Pool program which hospitals like UF Health count on to survive. The debate over how to make up the difference derailed the regular lawmaking session and forced Florida legislators back for a special session last month.
Armistead was one of two hospital executives who addressed the commission at Jacksonville University Wednesday. Governor Rick Scott assembled the panel to gather information from hospitals that rely on taxpayer funding. He says he wants to help them run as efficiently and transparently as possible.
