(Anderson-AP) Jan. 31, 2004 - The state's Medicaid agency could lose $260 million in federal funds.

The state Department of Health and Human Services and hospitals may lose the money as the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services changes the way it has handled reimbursements to hospitals.

Those reimbursements cover part of the gap between what private insurers would pay and what the Medicaid program pays for elderly and poor.

For instance, the agency is withholding a $20 million match for Palmetto Richland in Columbia in a dispute over what definition should be used for a county-run hospital.

Posted 8:00pm by Eva Pilgrim