Missouri lawmakers agree on more money for hospitals, higher education
Rudi Keller
Missouri Independent
The state’s budget also provides funding for the public defender system and mistakenly paid unemployment benefits
Hospitals, higher education and people who owe the state money from mistakenly paid unemployment benefits were the winners Wednesday in state budget negotiations.
There’s also extra money to help defendants in limbo because they are on public defender waiting lists and federal COVID-19 relief funds from the American Rescue Plan to help homeowners and renters behind on payments due to lost income.
For most of eight hours, conference committee members decided the fate of small and large spending items among the $3.1 billion in differences between the House and Senate. The final figures weren’t immediately available, but the final total will be much closer to the Senate’s $35.1 billion budget than the $32 billion version approved in the House.
Tim Bommel /
Hospitals, higher education and people who owe the state money from mistakenly paid unemployment benefits were the winners Wednesday in state budget negotiations.
There’s also extra money to help defendants in limbo because they are on public defender waiting lists and federal COVID-19 relief funds from the American Rescue Plan to help homeowners and renters behind on payments due to lost income.
For most of eight hours, conference committee members decided the fate of small and large spending items among the $3.1 billion in differences between the House and Senate. The final figures weren’t immediately available, but the final total will be much closer to the Senate’s $35.1 billion budget than the $32 billion version approved in the House.
Missouri hospitals lobby for changes to new Medicaid payment system
Senate budget includes $50 million to offset losses but providers seek long-term revision
Rudi Keller
Missouri lawmakers must finish work on the fiscal 2022 budget by Friday.
And while the biggest spending issue of the session, Medicaid expansion, is off the table, there are other big issues to resolve in the state-run health care program.
One of the largest is whether to provide a cushion for hospitals that will lose revenue when the Department of Social Services changes the way it pays for some services on July 1. The Senate spending plan includes $50 million to smooth the transition to what the department calls the Outpatient Simplified Fee Schedule, money that does not appear in the House version of the budget.