I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 2003

To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide that geographic

reclassifications of hospitals from one urban area to another urban area

do not result in lower wage indexes in the urban area in which the

hospital was originally classified.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 24, 2001

Mrs. ROUKEMA (for herself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. FERGUSON, Mr.

SAXTON, Mr. LOBIONDO, Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN, and Mr. PASCRELL) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways

and Means

A BILL

To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide

that geographic reclassifications of hospitals from one

urban area to another urban area do not result in lower

wage indexes in the urban area in which the hospital

was originally classified.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Hospital Medicare

5 Payment Parity Act of 2001’’.
2

•HR 2003 IH

1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

2 Congress finds the following:

3 (1) Reimbursement under the medicare pro4 gram for approximately 250 hospitals nationwide is

5 decreased by approximately $80,000,000 each year

6 due to the damaging effect of geographic reclassi7 fication of hospitals located in the same area as such

8 urban hospitals to other areas with a higher wage

9 indexes.

10 (2) A provision to protect rural hospitals from

11 similar damaging effects already exists under the

12 medicare program.

13 (3) The Medicare Payment Advisory Commis14 sion, in its March 2001 report to Congress, recog15 nized these damaging effects on urban hospitals and

16 the inequity related to the existing rule to protect

17 rural hospitals when they stated that ‘‘Congress

18 should protect urban hospitals from the adverse ef19 fect of nearby hospitals being reclassified to areas

20 with higher wage indexes by computing each area’s

21 wage index as if none of the hospitals located in the

22 area had been reassigned’’.
3

•HR 2003 IH

1 SEC. 3. APPLICATION OF WAGE INDEX FLOOR FOR HOS2 PITAL GEOGRAPHIC RECLASSIFICATIONS

3 FROM ONE URBAN AREA TO ANOTHER

4 URBAN AREA.

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1886(d)(8)(C)(ii) of the

6 Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395ww(d)(8)(C)(ii)) is

7 amended—

8 (1) by inserting ‘‘(I)’’ after ‘‘(ii)’’; and

9 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub10 clause:

11 ‘‘(II) If the application of subparagraph (B) or a de12 cision of the Medicare Geographic Classification Review

13 Board or the Secretary under paragraph (10), by treating

14 hospitals located in one urban area as being located in

15 another urban area reduces the wage index for that one

16 urban area (as applied under this subsection), the Sec17 retary shall calculate and apply such wage index under

18 this subsection as if the hospitals so treated had not been

19 excluded from the calculation of the wage index for that

20 one urban area.’’.

21 (b) WAIVER OF BUDGET NEUTRALITY.—Section

22 1886(d)(8)(D) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C.

23 1395ww(d)(8)(D)) is amended by inserting before the pe24 riod at the end the following: ‘‘, except that no such ad25 justment may be made to such amounts as a result of the

26 application of subparagraph (C)(ii)(II)’’.
4

•HR 2003 IH

1 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by

2 this section shall apply to cost reporting periods beginning

3 on or after October 1, 2001.

Æ