Washington, D.C. - Representative John E. Sweeney (R-NY) today applauded the announcement by the Senate Finance Committee Chairman Grassley (R-IA) to address the low Medicare reimbursements that have plagued hospitals in Upstate New York. Section 508 of the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) established a one-time special Medicare wage index appeals process.
Section 508 allowed some hospitals to request reclassification of their Medicare wage index, requiring the Medicare program to reimburse these hospitals as if they were located in a nearby county or city. This remedy helped a number of hospitals across the country, particularly hospitals competing with nearby communities for a skilled workforce like New York City here.
"The wage index problem has cost our hospitals millions in reimbursements for critical care needs for area residents," Rep. Sweeney said. "At a time when hospitals have been operating at substantial losses for the last seven years, in large part due to uncompensated care, this news is welcome and critically important. I have worked at the federal level to address this and will push extremely hard to retain this 508 fix in the House when we re-adjourn mid-November.
"I have worked closely with my colleague Rep. Sue Kelly (R-NY) on this issue and have also called on the Administration to explore possible long-term changes to the reimbursement process. I have also requested that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) initiate a demonstration project for all NY-20 and Capital Region hospitals to revise the calculation of the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) by relying on U.S. Department of Labor Healthcare Statistics for hospital reimbursement instead of outdated wage estimates. This issue is critically important to the hospitals in my district and I will not stop until I have seen success in addressing this issue," Sweeney added.
