Washington, DC – Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21) has cosponsored H.R. 1955, the Rural Hospital Access Act – bipartisan legislation to ensure that funding is secured on a permanent basis for Medicare Dependent and Low-Volume hospitals, an important issue for rural hospitals in our region. In our district, hospitals dependent on this program include Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital Medical Center, Elizabethtown Community Hospital, Adirondack Medical Center, Alice Hyde Medical Center, Nathan Littauer Hospital & Nursing Home, Little Falls Hospital, Samaritan Medical Center, River Hospital, Carthage Area Hospital, Lewis County General Hospital, Gouverneur Hospital, Canton-Potsdam Hospital, Clifton-Fine Hospital, Massena Memorial Hospital, and Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center.
“Hospitals across our district rely on this important funding to help ensure families across our district – especially seniors – get the care they need,” said Congresswoman Stefanik. “This bipartisan legislation would give rural hospitals across our district needed stability, allowing them to better serve the needs of our seniors.”
This legislation would amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to make permanent the extension of the Medicare-dependent hospital (MDH) program and the increased payments under the Medicare low-volume hospital program. Medicare-dependent hospitals are small rural hospitals for which Medicare patients comprise a significant percentage of their patients.
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