The Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services said Friday that it is adjusting its Medicare payment formula in a way that will boost payments to rural hospitals, which "have complained that this measure has unfairly disadvantaged some of them because wages are lower in their communities," Dan Diamond reports for Politco's Pulse newsletter.
"After the rule's release, the American Hospital Association said it supports improving the wage index values for rural hospitals, but that CMS shouldn't have done so in a budget-neutral manner," Diamond writes. "the National Rural Health Association — which last week pointed to a new investigation on rural hospitals' financial difficulties — had previously praised CMS' proposed version of the rule."
"The index is based on how much a hospital pays its staff, so hospitals in areas with high living costs get higher reimbursements than areas that have low cost of living -- for the same services," Kentucky Health News reported. "A labor market's wage index is the ratio of its average hourly wage to the national average hourly wage, according to CMS."
"After the rule's release, the American Hospital Association said it supports improving the wage index values for rural hospitals, but that CMS shouldn't have done so in a budget-neutral manner," Diamond writes. "the National Rural Health Association — which last week pointed to a new investigation on rural hospitals' financial difficulties — had previously praised CMS' proposed version of the rule."
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2M0vWot Medicare-Medicaid agency hikes payments to rural hospitals - Entrepreneur Generations
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