Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer announced on Wednesday the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid will finalize a rule change that will increase federal payments to Upstate hospitals by a total of $1 billion annually.
"This is one of the biggest shots in the arm for federal funding Upstate New York hospitals have seen in decades. This will be a monumental boost to healthcare for our families and to help our healthcare providers fix budget shortfalls, address doctor and nurse shortages and so much more. For years, our hardworking healthcare providers have faced unfairly low Medicare payments, receiving cents on the dollar for the care they provide, but now after over a decade of fighting I am proud to announce I have secured the rules change which will bring nearly $1 billion every single year to hospitals across Upstate New York," says Schumer. "Years from now, we will look back at today as a pivotal moment for our Upstate New York hospitals. From Albany to Buffalo, and Binghamton to Watertown, hospitals big and small, in rural and urban areas, will finally get the support and full reimbursements they have long deserved and have been denied for too long."
"CMS' adjustment to the calculation of the wage index rural floor will have a tremendous positive impact on many of Upstate New York hospitals and health systems," says HANYS President Bea Grause, RN, JD. "We are tremendously grateful to Sen. Schumer and Rep. Tonko for their steadfast dedication to New York's hospitals and for ensuring CMS finalized this important provision. The resulting increased Medicare reimbursement to our providers will immediately help to sustain and bolster vulnerable New Yorker's access to healthcare services."
Schumer explained that the Medicare Wage Index rate is used to determine how much money the U.S. government pays hospitals for labor costs when they treat Medicare patients. Each metro area is assigned a rate that dictates whether they receive more or less than the national average for health care labor costs, however, historically hospitals in Upstate New York had received less than the true cost of providing healthcare for the areas they served. For example, since the 1980s, hospitals in the Albany area have received only 86 percent of what the average hospital receives to account for wages, which is not reflective of the true wages and labor market in Albany. The new FY24 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule will now increase the Capital Region's adjustment to 122% of what the average hospital receives in wage adjustments, finally acknowledging that the region needs much higher than averages wages to compete and bring in the best providers, thereby bringing hundreds of millions in federal funding to Capital Region hospitals each year helping to improve healthcare for the communities they serve.
