August 27, 2020
By News Director Jared Atha
Congressman Frank Lucas of Cheyenne announced recently that he has cosponsored Pennsylvania Congressman Fed Keller’s “Reviewing Urban and Rural Adjustments to Level Hospital Expenses and Lopsided Payments Act”, otherwise known as the RURAL HELP Act to help rural hospitals remain open. The act could benefit rural hospitals in western Oklahoma.
In a press release from Lucas’ office, The RURAL HELP Act aims to bring parity to inpatient Medicare reimbursement payments between rural and urban hospitals to help struggling rural hospitals survive by requiring the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to determine the precise level of systematic disparity that exists between urban and rural hospital payments under such reimbursements. It also specifies that once the evaluation is completed, the Secretary shall make an adjustment to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services payment policies to make up for the identified disparity.
According to the National Rural Health Association, over just the last ten years, 124 rural hospitals have closed with another 453 at risk for closure.
As it relates to Oklahoma’s Third Congressional District that Lucas represents, the RURAL HELP Act will help keep hospitals open in the area by providing reimbursement parity with urban or suburban hospitals.
According to the press release, those hospitals include, among others, Great Plains Regional Medical Center in Elk City, Alliance Health in Clinton, Alliance Health in Woodward, Jackson County Memorial in Altus, and Elkview General in Hobart.
In March, Lucas joined Congressman Keller in sending a letter to CMS Administrator Seema Verma asking her agency to re-evaluate the Medicare Severity Diagnosis Related Group classification system in the annually updated Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System, the mechanism that determines Medicare reimbursement for inpatient services at most hospitals.
Lucas says the MS-DRG recalibrations have negatively impacted these types of rural hospitals over the last several years and this re-evaluation is a critical component to ensuring rural hospitals receive the appropriate Medicare reimbursement amount.
