House Reveals SGR Bill; Rural Medicare Extenders Included

By Maggie Elehwany posted 03-24-2015 12:15 PM

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Today, the House of Representatives unveiled a bill to permanently fix the Sustainable Growth Rate. Included in the legislation is a two-year extension of each of the current "Rural Medicare extenders" as well as a two-year renewal of the federal Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Two imperative rural PPS hospital provisions, the Medicare Dependent Hospital and the Low-Volume Hospitals Adjustment, are included in the legislation. Additionally, rural ambulance payments, rural home health add-on payments and the physician payment known as the Geographic Practice Cost Index are also included and extended for two years.

It is unclear if Congress will be able to pass permanent legislation to fix the SGR (the controversial price tag and lack of pay-fors for a significant portion of the bill remain), let alone complete the Herculean task by the March 31st deadline when both the SGR and rural Medicare Extenders current payment provisions expire. What may likely happen is yet another short-term extension to buy Congress some time until after the Spring recess when debate could resume. Nevertheless, things are definitely on the right track, and it's a huge victory for rural to get these critical payments extended for two years.

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