Pennsylvania has gone to court to seek the restoration of more than $200 million in tobacco funds that it lost as a result of an arbitration ruling last year.
The money, from the national master tobacco settlement agreement, is used to make Tobacco Uncompensated Care Fund payments that are vital to the state’s safety-net hospitals.  The purpose of the tobacco money is to help underwrite the cost of uncompensated care provided by hospitals that serve especially large numbers of uninsured patients.
Last year an arbitration panel ruled that the state had failed to collect the tobacco taxes owed to it as part of the national tobacco settlement agreement.  In its suit attempting to overturn the arbitration decision, the state maintains that the state has, in fact, collected the taxes in a manner consistent with the settlement agreement and that the tobacco companies have significant overstated how much loose tobacco they sell in Pennsylvania.
Read more about the arbitration ruling that cost Pennsylvania more than $200 million in tobacco funds and the state’s efforts to overturn that ruling in this Philadelphia Inquirer article.