NC Medicaid leaders seek funding strategy as federal work requirements — and their costs — loom

It also introduces stricter limits on retroactive Medicaid coverage, a mechanism used commonly by hospitals to help cover the costs for uninsured patients. Expansion itself does not use state general fund dollars, Bush said. Administrative funding for Medicaid expansion is “hard coded” in state statute, she said, providing counties with $7.6 million per quarter for eligibility workers and $3.3 million per quarter for state administrative costs. The law stipulates that if supporting expansion costs the state anything, then expansion could be repealed. Credit: NC DHHSThe first option would restructure how public hospitals contribute to Medicaid expansion by shifting more funding into transfers among different state departments.