Medicaid program; health care-related taxes

This final rule revises the collection threshold under the regulatory indirect guarantee hold harmless arrangement test to reflect the provisions of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006. When determining whether there is an indirect guarantee under the 2-prong test for portions of fiscal years beginning on or after January 1, 2008 and before October 1, 2011, the allowable amount that can be collected from a health care-related tax is reduced from 6 to 5.5 percent of net patient revenues received by the taxpayers. This final rule also clarifies the standard for determining the existence of a hold harmless arrangement under the positive correlation test, Medicaid payment test, and the guarantee test (with conforming changes to parallel provisions concerning hold harmless arrangements with respect to provider-related donations); codifies changes to permissible class of health care items or services related to managed care organizations as enacted by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005; and, removes obsolete transition period regulatory language.