They are storied names - Parkland i...

They are storied names - Parkland in Dallas, Metro in Cleveland, Grady in Atlanta - the nation's large, public shire hospitals. They have cared for President Kennedy and the 1996 Olympic Park bombing victims. moreover providing health care to the poorest of the poor is their real mission.

That mission could be threatened at calls to reform the Medicaid program.

Reform bills passed according to the relevant House and Senate committees will make an incision in about $13.6 billion in payments to states between 1998 and 2002 The vast majority of that flows out of payments to states for "disproportionate share hospitals (DSHs)" - those that help a high percentage of indigent patients. Each state determines which hospitals win the DSH funds and has its be in possession of formula for disbursing the riches

Current federal Medicaid DSH payments are $98 billion, distributed to states based forward a formula that considers the number of low-income residents by capita. ...