AUGUSTA — Maine’s Republican governor says he predicts the Trump administration will re-certify a state-run psychiatric hospital.

Gov. Paul LePage said during a Tuesday call-in on WVOM-FM that Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price is “very receptive” to the LePage administration’s case to re-certify Riverview Psychiatric Center.

Riverview lost federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services certification after the agency in 2013 discovered issues such as the improper use of Tasers on patients.

The loss of certification jeopardizes up to $20 million in annual federal funds that the state relies on.

LePage said the administration will look into whether the loss of certification was “political retaliation” because Maine didn’t expand Medicaid under Democratic President Barack Obama’s health care law.

LePage claims there’s plenty of evidence that it was a political move.

Gov. Paul LePage meets with Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price on March 10 in Washington.

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