BATON ROUGE &045; Hospitals in Louisiana may have to spend money to get money in accordance with Louisiana’s new hospital tax proposal.

The annual tax or the supporter preferred term &uot;provider fee&uot; will charge hospitals 1.5 percent of their total revenue. This will generate approximately $87 million for the state to be used for increasing rates in Medicaid. The government will then match the total by 2 to 1 using federal grants. The match would estimate a $215 million reimbursement to the hospitals.

The &uot;provider fee&uot; endorsed by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco passed the full House Wednesday night by a 72-29 vote, two more votes than necessary. The proposal will now go before the Senate for debate.

Treatments for uninsured and poor patients have hospitals burdened with uncompensated services. Vernon Stevens, a trustee of Louisiana Hospital Association and administrator of Riverland Medical Center, said the fee would help protect the community hospitals and improve health care.

&uot;It’s like a win-win situation for the hospitals and the state,&uot; Stevens said.

The tax bill has been named a &uot;sick tax&uot; around Republican legislators who don’t think the state needs the money.

People who are against taxes and say no to anything that involves the word tax are opposed to this bill, Stevens said, but this is not a tax.

Republicans are concerned this provider fee will carry the cost to of the uninsured to paying and insured patients. Supporters and negotiators of the tax said the bill addresses the issues to prevent any cross over problems, but the opposition says the bill’s structure is too broad to prevent such an occurrence from not happening.

The Louisiana Hospital Association brought a national consultant to review the bill for improvements and suggestions, Stevens said. Local legislators didn’t return calls referring to the hospital tax.

Rural hospitals state charity hospitals, psychiatric hospitals and rehabilitation facilities will be exempt from the tax. Louisiana hospitals will not feel a significant impact if the bill is passed, but private specialty facilities will be paying out of pocket with little return.