Save Struggling Hospitals Act

This bill would write into Medicare law a policy that raises the wage index used to set payments to hospitals in low-wage areas. For discharges on or after October 1, 2019, a hospital whose area wage index is below the 25th percentile would have its index raised by half the gap between its index and the 25th percentile. The change must be budget neutral, meaning other payment adjustments offset its cost. Those offsetting adjustments could not lower the index for hospitals below the 75th percentile, and could not cut any hospital's index below 95 percent of its prior-year level.

Full text and official record on Congress.gov

Sponsors

• Mark R. Warner Democrat sponsor
• 6 cosponsors