Raised Bill No. 5372, introduced in the February Session, 2024, addresses Medicaid funding for beds at chronic disease hospitals when patients are temporarily transferred to acute care hospitals. The bill, effective July 1, 2024, stipulates that the Commissioner of Social Services is to provide Medicaid funding for a bed reserved at a chronic disease hospital for up to fifteen days when a patient is transferred to an acute care hospital. This provision applies only if the chronic disease hospital has a census of more than fifty percent Medicaid-funded patients at the time of the transfer and meets additional requirements set by the commissioner.

The bill also mandates that the commissioner establish requirements for chronic disease hospitals to qualify for Medicaid payments for reserved beds. These requirements include, but are not limited to, the hospital providing evidence that a patient can return to the chronic disease hospital no later than fifteen days after admission to the acute care hospital. The bill introduces new legal language to the general statutes and does not include any deletions from current law.