PIERRE, S.D. – The expansion of Medicaid services in South Dakota will become official on July first. Voters last November approved a
constitutional amendment authorizing the expansion.
Tim Rave, President of the Association of Health Care Organizations, says the expansion will stabilize hospital finances.
“Hospitals in 2020 wrote off $181 million in bad debt. Out of the anticipated dollars,, the portion of Medicaid expansion that hospitals will get,  probably not coincidentally, will basically be that same number going forward. I don’t think people realize the amount of dollars our hospitals write off annually.”
Rave says hospitals, like many others, are facing rising costs.
“We’re going to provide care to everybody.  No matter what their financial status is, they’re going to be taken care of. At the end the day, it needs to be paid for; the doctors, nurses, support staff, that all takes money. It think its really good news for our members as far as bringing stability and continued access to everyone.”
Rave says there are some unique health care challenges in the state.
We’re very fortunate in this state to have a very strong health care community covering a very large area. And in remote places as well. To keep that infrastructure strong, is a good thing, long-term.
The legislature set aside over twenty million dollars in the next budget to pay for the first stages of the expansion. The federal
government will pay ninety percent of the extra costs for the first few years.
