Sponsors (6)
The bill directs more Medicare IPPS funding to hospitals in low-wage areas to shore up local inpatient access, but does so by shifting funds and creating implementation complexity that can reduce payments elsewhere and impose indirect costs.
Hospitals in low-wage areas (those with wage indexes below the 25th percentile) will receive higher Medicare IPPS wage-index payments—half the gap to the 25th percentile—boosting Medicare revenue to those hospitals.
Patients served by low-wage-area hospitals may be more likely to retain local inpatient care because the increased Medicare payments can improve those hospitals' financial stability.
Other Medicare-participating hospitals may see reduced IPPS payments or smaller adjustments because the change is applied budget-neutrally, which could lower revenue for some hospitals or services.
Taxpayers (and HHS implementation processes) face indirect costs and added administrative complexity from redistributing Medicare payments and applying the adjustment retroactively to 2019.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adjusts the Medicare inpatient wage index so hospitals in areas below the 25th percentile get half the gap to the 25th percentile added to their index, applied budget‑neutrally for discharges on/after Oct 1, 2019.
Amends Medicare’s inpatient prospective payment wage index to give a boost to hospitals located in areas with low wage indexes. For discharges on or after October 1, 2019, hospitals whose wage index (before this change) is below the 25th percentile would have their final area wage index raised by half the difference between their index and the 25th percentile for that fiscal year, with the change applied budget‑neutrally under existing Medicare rules.
Introduced March 26, 2026 by Mark R. Warner · Last progress March 26, 2026