Massachusetts hospitals say they can get behind what they describe as a $250 million tax on hospitals recommended by Gov. Charlie Baker, but only if certain conditions are met, including sunsetting the levy on Sept. 30, 2022 to keep it aligned with a planned five-year federal Medicaid waiver.

Hospitals are lobbying lawmakers ahead of Wednesday’s release of the House Ways and Means Committee’s rewrite of Baker’s budget, hoping for changes designed to ensure that hospitals recoup revenues from what the administration calls a new assessment to support new MassHealth accountable care organization (ACO) incentive payments under a five-year waiver proposal that is being assembled.

The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation (MTF) on Monday called the Baker administration’s Delivery System Reform Incentive Program proposal “a substantial expansion and overhaul of the current program” that relies on the new hospital assessments and assumes approval of an upcoming waiver to generate hundreds of millions of dollars and incentivize Medicaid providers to move toward preferred care systems.

Predicting “strong debate” on the hospital assessment, MTF said the levy “may prove to be controversial and meet with resistance from legislators representing providers with large net assessments,” but noted lawmakers would need to find $73.5 million in savings or budget cuts for fiscal 2017 if they don’t agree to Baker’s plan.

In a memo circulated to lawmakers on Thursday, the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) said it is board, “including hospitals that would gain and lose under the plan,” has concluded that it can support the governor’s plan “but only with important modifications: the tax must be made contingent upon a sunset date that aligns with the five-year term of the waiver; specific assurances must be included to ensure that hospitals are made ‘whole, as a class’ each year of the waiver; and the tax must cease if hospitals are not made ‘whole, as a class.’“

The hospital group urged lawmakers, “Please stand up for your local hospital. Please support the MHA-proposed modifications to the governor’s tax proposal.”