The Supreme Court largely left the Affordable Care Act intact over the summer, though it struck down the key provision forcing states to swell the ranks of Medicaid recipients.

Governor Parnell is withholding his decision on whether to expand Medicaid until he gets results from a cost analysis.

A few months ago, he indicated to APRN hes erring towards no.

If I had to make the decision today, I would not expand Medicaid over concerns of costs and the uncertain future of Medicaid on the federal side, he said in a phone interview last summer.

The federal government pays about half the states 1.2 billion dollar Medicaid tab. Alaska pays the rest. But the Obama administration is offering a much better deal for the Medicaid expansion: The federal government will pay 100% of the expansion in years 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Karen Perdue, president and CEO of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association, a group that wants Governor Parnell to expand the Medicaid rolls,said medical providers in Alaska could stand to make hundreds of millions of dollars more over the next decade.

The hospitals would receive about $561 million over several years in revenue that probably would not come in the door, she said.

Revenue that would not come in the door if the governor opts to not expand the Medicaid ranks. The number Perdue cites comes from a new Kaiser Family Foundation study released this week.

Perdue said hospitals need the expansion and extra revenue because under the Affordable Care Act, providers in Alaska could lose up to $25 million dollars per year in Medicare reimbursements.

Alaska hospitals, most of which are small, community hospitals, municipal hospitals, nonprofit hospitals, would really be impacted by the Medicare reductions, she said.

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Health Care Providers Push Governor Parnell to Expand Medicaid