Baptist Hospital at E and Moreno streets in Pensacola. Photo credit: Phil Nickinson

Gov. Rick Scott's administration is continuing to ratchet up pressure on the hospital industry, with Scott saying Monday that 129 hospitals face audits related to Medicaid managed-care contracts.

Scott listed the hospitals in a letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Aug. 24. Among them is Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, one of the community's largest employers.

See the letter here.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration earlier this month said it was auditing 31 hospitals to determine whether their contracts with managed-care plans comply with a state law that limits payments to 120 percent of a Medicaid fee schedule.

AHCA last month requested that hospitals and insurers certify compliance with the law. Some hospitals did not certify compliance by an Aug. 1 deadline, while Scott's letter said others "warrant an audit to verify compliance with state law because of the nature of the explanations they provided in their responses."

In an emailed statement, Andy Terry, vice president of revenue management for Baptist Health, said Baptist “took this request from AHCA for certification of our Medicaid Managed Care rates very seriously.

“Because the August 1, 2015,  due date for the response fell on a Saturday, based on our prior experience with AHCA filings, we believed that the due date would automatically be extended to Monday, August 3, which was the next business day.  

“We believed that we were still timely in submitting our response on Monday, August 3. We responded fully to AHCAs request for certification of our Medicaid Managed Care rates and we confirmed that we are in compliance with the governing statute.”

News Service of Florida contributed to this report.