Save Struggling Hospitals Act

Key Points

• This bill makes a temporary Medicare policy permanent that boosts payments to hospitals in areas with the lowest wages. It targets hospitals with wage indexes below the 25th percentile nationally, which are often in rural or underserved communities.
• The payment boost is calculated by adding half the difference between a hospital's current area wage index and the 25th percentile wage index. This helps the lowest-paid hospitals close the gap with better-funded facilities.
• To avoid adding new costs to Medicare, the bill requires budget neutrality. But it protects hospitals below the 75th percentile from having their payments cut to fund the boost for the lowest-wage hospitals.
• An additional protection ensures no hospital's wage index drops more than 5% from the prior year, providing a floor against sudden payment cuts.
• The bill is bipartisan, introduced by Rep. Kustoff (R-TN) and Rep. Sewell (D-AL), and would codify a policy that has been in effect since October 2019 but has relied on annual administrative renewal rather than permanent law.

Votes

No votes have been recorded for this legislation yet.