Fighting for Rural Health Care: Simpson, House Coalition Seek to Extend Health Care Incentive Program
By Nate Poppino, The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho
Dec. 17–As U.S. House Democrats prepare a Medicare bill over the next week, some House members are hoping they keep a specific group of health care workers in mind: those recognized by the federal program as serving in “rural” areas.
In 2003, Congress included an extensive series of benefits for rural hospitals, home health providers, physicians and others in the Medicare Modernization Act, the same act that created the program’s prescription drug benefit.
The provisions attempted to provide greater wage parity for rural hospitals, reimburse small hospitals for their lab services, and provide incentive payments for physicians, ambulance and home health providers to encourage them to operate in rural areas.
Now, many of those provisions have expired or will soon. Extending them, said U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, is especially vital to states like Idaho, almost all of which is regarded as rural.
“One of the real concerns is that when you look at trying to recruit physicians and other health care providers to rural areas in this country, it’s getting harder and harder,” he said.
The House Rural Health Care Coalition, whose membership includes Simpson, has asked the House leadership to extend the Medicare payments.
It’s a request many health care providers in south-central Idaho say they are grateful for.
“I welcome our delegates’ support in this area,” Carl Hanson, CEO of Minidoka Memorial Hospital in Rupert, said on Friday. “I think it’s great.”
The incentives — as much as 5 percent extra for physicians and home health agencies — help keep rural providers functioning, Hanson said, especially given other threatened Medicare cuts and the fact that Idaho has so few physicians per capita.
Mark Christensen, chief financial officer for St. Benedicts Family Medical Center in Jerome, agreed, saying it’s difficult for many small hospitals to make a profit when their patient volumes change drastically and their supplies come in smaller quantities. The incentives, he said, have also helped the hospital attract and retain physicians.
“Those kinds of things have been a help for these rural hospitals for a long, long time,” Christensen said. “Rural hospitals, as a rule, struggle.”
Susie Pouliot, CEO of the Idaho Medical Association, said physicians are already facing a 10-percent cut in Medicare fees and that her organization has been working with the American Medical Association to avoid both cuts. Losing that money, she said, could reduce the number of doctors willing to take Medicare patients.
“We want to ensure that Medicare patients can get in to see a doctor when they need one,” she said.
Continuing the program, Simpson said, will require cutting something elsewhere in the budget, as the House is operating under pay-go rules. But enough members of Congress are concerned about the rural incentives, he said, that the House leadership may have problems passing the Medicare bill without the extension. The health coalition’s goal, he said, is to have the bill passed and done with by Friday, when Congress adjourns for Christmas.
“I’m optimistic (about the bill passing soon),” he said. “But then I’m the eternal optimist.”
Nate Poppino can bereached at 735-3237 ornpoppino@magicvalley.com.
—–
To see more of The Times-News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.magicvalley.com
Copyright (c) 2007, The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.