Grassley introduces rural healthcare bill
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has re-introduced legislation to strengthen the healthcare delivery system in rural America.
Grassley's Medicare Rural Health Access Improvement Act of 2009, re-introduced this week, would improve Medicare payments to rural doctors, ambulances and mid-sized hospitals. The bill would also work to protect access for rural residents to home medical equipment and supplies, support rural hospitals such as critical access hospitals and provide additional authority for physician assistants who provide valuable extended care and hospice services.
"The policy changes in this legislation go directly to the special challenges facing the healthcare system in rural America," Grassley said. "They recognize the high quality of healthcare delivered by rural providers, embrace common sense solutions and seek equitable treatment from payment systems."
According to Grassley, the legislation would give what are known as "tweener" hospitals a stronger position to provide healthcare services to people in their communities and surrounding areas.
"Tweener hospitals are too large to be designated as critical access hospitals but too small to be financially viable under the Medicare hospital prospective payment system, which is designed for larger operations," he said.
"These hospitals are part of the backbone of the rural healthcare system and local rural economies," he added. "There's no justification for Medicare not recognizing their unique situation and vital role. I'm committed to doing everything I can to make sure they're treated fairly and not left in a perilous situation."
Grassley said tweener hospitals are struggling to stay afloat, as they have relatively low volumes of inpatient admissions. He said his bill would improve the existing low-volume add-on payment for hospitals so that more rural facilities with low volumes would receive the assistance they desperately need.
