16 Nov Tell Congress to Oppose Changes to Swing-Bed Reimbursements
Reps. Evan Jenkins (R-WV) and Tom O’Halleran’s (D-AZ), along with 17 other members, sent a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee opposing changes to swing bed reimbursements.
You can read the signed letter here.
The House Ways and Means Committee announced their Medicare extenders package on November 15. In the package, the Committee proposes to reduce Critical Access Hospital (CAH) swing bed payments to offset extensions in other sections of the package.
Reduction in CAH swing bed reimbursement was previously recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG). In March 2015 the HHS OIG released a report suggesting that CMS should reduce swing bed reimbursement to CAHs to the SNF PPS rates. The Coalition worked very hard at that time to prevent Congress from moving forward with this policy. As you can see, CAH’s swing bed reimbursement is once again at risk of significant decrease.
We encourage all CAHs to write to your Member of Congress today. You can locate your Representative by entering your zip code here. Or if you would like assistance identifying the staff for your Member of Congress, please reach out to Coalition staff. Below is suggested language for you to send to your Representative:
We write to you today to urge you to not move forward with the proposed Medicare extenders offset modifying payment for critical access hospital (CAH) swing beds. The House Ways and Means Committee released a framework for their Medicare extenders package announcing this proposed modification on November 15, 2017. This change in reimbursement would be devastating for CAHs, creating further financial hardships for already struggling rural hospitals and remove a critical service to rural populations. A letter signed by over 100 critical access hospitals from across the country was sent to Congressional leadership opposing this proposed change. We respectfully ask that this provision not be considered in the Medicare extenders package and ensure that CAHs are able to continue providing good quality care to rural patients nationwide.
You can read the press release for the Medicare Extenders package here.
You can read the full HHS OIG report here.
You can read the Coalition prepared summaries of the March 2015 HHS OIG report here.
Please feel free to email us at contact@cahcoalition.com if you have any questions.