House Members Introduce Bill That Would Increase Medicare Payments To Rural Hospitals

Reps. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Jim Turner (D-Texas) on April 10 introduced a bill that would increase Medicare support for rural hospitals, CongressDaily/AM reports. The Rural Community Hospital Assistance Act would expand from 15 to 50 beds the "size of hospitals eligible for" Medicare's Critical Access Hospital program and would "make more services eligible" (Rovner/Hagstrom, CongressDaily/AM, 4/11). The Critical Access Hospital designation, a status made available under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, grants full Medicare reimbursement for the costs of services provided by qualifying hospitals (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 3/23/01). Moran and Turner also joined the growing number of people criticizing a provision in President Bush's fiscal year 2003 budget proposal requiring that any Medicare payment increases to providers be offset by decreases to other providers. "It is unrealistic and unworkable," Moran said, adding, "The challenges we face require that there be additional money." The rural hospitals measure would cost an estimated $2 billion over five years. "We all understand that health care costs are rising, but Medicare is not keeping up with those costs," Turner said (CongressDaily/AM, 4/11).