East Greenbush, N.Y. - Today, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik announced that after her advocacy, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a rule change to the Medicare Wage Index (MWI) calculation which will help Upstate New York hospitals who are struggling to recruit and retain essential health staff and will ensure access to care for Medicare beneficiaries.
“Upstate New York and North Country communities rely on our hospitals to provide critical services and are often the only provider of these life-saving services for miles. For too long the MWI, which is used to determine how much hospitals get for the labor costs associated with treating Medicare patients, has been severely underrepresented,’ stated Congresswoman Stefanik. ‘I advocated for this rule change to increase in New York’s rural wage index drawing much needed resources to our hospitals Upstate.”
Congresswoman Stefanik sent a letter to CMS with her New York Colleagues back in June, 2023, urging CMS to adopt the changes to the rural wage index calculation as described in the proposed rule.
