Title: Rural Hospital Frontier Workforce Fairness Act
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Rural Hospital Frontier Workforce Fairness Act
This bill alters the Medicare prospective payment system for inpatient hospital services furnished at sole community hospitals (i.e., rural hospitals or hospitals that are the sole source of inpatient care in a certain geographic area). Specifically, the bill applies a minimum area wage adjustment to payments to sole community hospitals that are located up to 75 miles from the closest frontier (i.e., predominantly rural) state. Currently, the minimum area wage adjustment applies only to hospitals in frontier states.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5103 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5103

To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to extend the floor on 
 the area wage index under the inpatient prospective payment system to 
                   certain sole community hospitals.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 14, 2019

  Mr. Peterson (for himself and Mr. Tipton) 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 extend the floor on 
 the area wage index under the inpatient prospective payment system to 
                   certain sole community hospitals.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Rural Hospital Frontier Workforce 
Fairness Act''.

SEC. 2. EXTENDING FLOOR ON AREA WAGE INDEX TO CERTAIN SOLE COMMUNITY 
              HOSPITALS.

    Section 1886(d)(3)(E)(iii) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
1395ww(d)(3)(E)(iii)) is amended--
            (1) in subclause (I), by inserting before the period at the 
        end the following: ``and, for discharges occurring on or after 
        October 1, 2019, the area wage index applicable under this 
        subparagraph to any sole community hospital that is located not 
        more than 75 miles from the closest frontier State and that 
        makes an election under subclause (V) may not be less than 
        1.00''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subclause:
                                    ``(V) Sole community hospital 
                                election.--The Secretary shall provide 
                                for a process under which a sole 
                                community hospital described in 
                                subclause (I) may elect, at such time 
                                and in such manner as specified by the 
                                Secretary, to apply subclause (I) to 
                                such sole community hospital.''.
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