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August 26, 2013 at 09:55 AM
MILWAUKEE (AP) — U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is leading a fight against proposed cuts to Medicare reimbursements for rural hospitals that she says will reduce access to health care and weaken rural economies across the nation.
The Wisconsin Democrat and 19 other senators sent a letter dated Thursday to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and Sen. Orrin Hatch, the highest ranking Republican on the committee, protesting changes to how Medicare classifies and pays critical access hospitals, or CAHs. The facilities provide services in rural areas that have few other health care options and generally receive higher Medicare reimbursements.
President Barack Obama’s administration has proposed removing the CAH designation for any hospital within 10 miles of another and reducing the rate of reimbursement from 101 percent to 100 percent of reasonable costs in the 2014 fiscal year budget. The Office of Management and Budget estimates that would save more than $2 billion over 10 years, with some $690 million of that coming from eliminating the CAH designation for hospitals that are close to others.
Baldwin’s office says at least eight hospitals in Wisconsin and 71 nationwide would lose CAH status under those changes.
“If enacted, these policies would compromise access to health care and weaken rural economies in Wisconsin and across the country. I fear that these proposals could even force many rural Wisconsin hospitals to shut their doors — causing a ripple effect on our economy and leaving many without access to care,” Baldwin said in a statement Friday.
There are more than 1,300 CAHs in the United States, according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General. They provide care to about 2.3 million Medicare beneficiaries in 2011 at a cost of about $8.5 billion.
Hospital groups, including the National Rural Health Association, note this represents only about 5 percent of the Medicare hospital budget and the agency spends less per patient in rural areas than urban ones.
