Bill > S999

This bill, the Save Rural Hospitals Act of 2021, aims to ensure fairness in Medicare hospital payments and preserve access to rural healthcare. The key provisions are: 1. Establishing a floor on the area wage index (a factor used to adjust Medicare hospital payments) of 0.85 for hospitals not located in frontier states, meaning their payments cannot be less than 85% of the national average, and this change will not be implemented in a budget-neutral manner. 2. Applying a similar 0.85 floor on the area wage adjustment factor used for Medicare hospital outpatient department services, also without budget neutrality. These measures are intended to support rural hospitals, which often face financial challenges, by maintaining higher Medicare reimbursement rates and preventing further reductions in their payments.

Budget and Finance

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/999/all-info