Title: RURAL HELP Act of 2021
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Reviewing Urban and Rural Adjustments to Level Hospital Expenses and Lopsided Payments Act of 2021 or the RURAL HELP Act of 2021
This bill requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to determine whether costs incurred by rural hospitals exceed costs incurred by urban hospitals under the Medicare inpatient prospective payment system and to adjust payments accordingly.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1749 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1749

To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to direct the Secretary 
     of Health and Human Services to conduct a study on potential 
 disparities in incurred costs for rural and urban hospitals under the 
   inpatient prospective payment system and to authorize appropriate 
                          payment adjustments.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 10, 2021

  Mr. Keller (for himself, Mr. Kelly of Pennsylvania, Mr. Thompson of 
 Pennsylvania, Mr. Griffith, Mr. Lucas, and Mr. Steube) 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 direct the Secretary 
     of Health and Human Services to conduct a study on potential 
 disparities in incurred costs for rural and urban hospitals under the 
   inpatient prospective payment system and to authorize appropriate 
                          payment adjustments.

    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 ``Reviewing Urban and Rural 
Adjustments to Level Hospital Expenses and Lopsided Payments Act of 
2021'' or the ``RURAL HELP Act of 2021''.

SEC. 2. STUDY ON INCURRED COSTS DISPARITIES UNDER IPPS; AUTHORIZATION 
              OF PAYMENT ADJUSTMENTS.

    Section 1886(d)(5) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
1395ww(d)(5)) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph:
    ``(N)(i) Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of 
this subparagraph, the Secretary shall conduct a study to determine if, 
under the methodology for determining payments under paragraph (1)(A), 
and using both national and hospital-specific cost-to-charge ratios, 
costs incurred by hospitals located in rural areas by diagnosis-related 
group exceed those costs incurred by hospitals located in urban areas.
    ``(ii) Insofar as the Secretary determines through the study 
conducted under clause (i) that costs incurred by hospitals located in 
rural areas exceed those costs incurred by hospitals located in urban 
areas, the Secretary shall provide for an appropriate adjustment to 
payments under paragraph (1)(A) to reflect those higher costs for 
discharges occurring on or after October 1 of a year specified by the 
Secretary (but in no case later than 2 years after the date of the 
enactment of this subparagraph).''.
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