“To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to codify the Medicare low-wage index hospital policy.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section codifies, for Medicare inpatient hospital discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2019, an area wage index adjustment under the inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) for hospitals with a wage index below the 25th percentile across all hospitals by increasing such index by one-half the difference between the hospital's otherwise applicable wage index and the 25th percentile wage index. (As background, the IPPS area wage index adjusts hospital payments for geographic labor cost differences.) The adjustment is budget neutral pursuant to existing law, with budget neutrality implemented such that it does not decrease wage indexes for hospitals below the 75th percentile or result in any hospital's wage index being less than 95% of its prior fiscal year wage index.