While a rose may smell as sweet by any other name, the named source of funds from which the state appropriates money for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority can make a difference worth millions of dollars.

During the last legislative session, the authority was appropriated $50 million from the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Fund, which has the federal government as its funding source.

Because the $50 million originated from a federal source, however, the health care authority is not allowed to use those funds to match Medicaid expenditures. Medicaid is the only program operated by the authority.

The Legislature is expected to swap out that $50 million appropriation with funding from another source sometime early in the next legislative session. The change would allow the authority to obtain $167 million in federal funds.