WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker today announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will move to extend a key Medicare policy—the imputed rural floor—to provide New Jersey hospitals with fair and equitable payments to support physicians and other health care professionals providing care to seniors and low-income patients.

“This extension of the Medicare imputed floor wage index is a major victory for New Jersey’s hospitals, and one of the most important healthcare policy provisions I am proud to fight for in Washington,” said Sen. Booker. “The imputed rural floor provides not only much-needed equity in Medicare reimbursements for New Jersey’s affected hospitals, but it allows our state to continue to provide high quality healthcare to our residents. I am proud to stand with the entire New Jersey delegation to continue to support this important policy until we can implement a permanent solution.”

Sen. Menendez has been the key Congressional champion of this policy for several years, providing the state’s hospitals with hundreds of millions in additional Medicare wage payments. Last month, Menendez led a letter, signed by Sen. Booker and all 12 members of the New Jersey House delegation, to CMS calling for an extension of the imputed rural floor.

New Jersey is one of only three states in the nation deemed to be “all urban” under Medicare’s wage payment policy. As such, the state’s hospitals are unable to benefit from several Medicare policies that benefit rural states. The imputed rural floor allows New Jersey’s hospitals to effectively compete for the highest quality health care talent available by providing equity with rural states. Currently this policy is set to expire on September 30, 2016, but will now be extended for an additional year to September 30, 2017.

“NJHA thanks Sen. Menendez and Sen. Booker, and the New Jersey delegation for making the imputed floor policy an important priority,” said Betsy Ryan, CEO of the New Jersey Hospital Association. "This policy has been in place for many years, and its renewal provides assurance that New Jersey hospitals and their patients receive the Garden State’s fair share of these important healthcare dollars.”

New Jersey hospitals expected to benefit are:

  • Cape Regional Medical Center (Cape May Court House) $1,005,177
  • Capital Health Medical Center - Hopewell Cooper (Pennington) $4,269,800
  • Cooper University Hospital $2,527,002
  • Hackettstown Regional Medical Center $2,607,947
  • Hunterdon Medical Center (Raritan) $100,877
  • Inspira Medical Center - Elmer $359,656
  • Inspira Medical Center - Vineland $1,912,683
  • Inspira Medical Center - Woodbury $829,054
  • Kennedy University Hospital (Cherry Hill) $2,418,664
  • Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County (Willingboro) $473,873
  • Memorial Hospital of Salem County, Inc. (Woodstown) $341,495
  • Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center (Camden) $1,718,118
  • R.W.J. University Hospital - Hamilton $4,601,363
  • R.W.J. University Hospital - Rahway $75,239
  • R.W.J. University Hospital - Somerset $137,397
  • St. Francis Medical Center (Trenton) $2,187,094
  • St. Luke's Warren Hospital (Phillipsburg) $3,602,423
  • Trinitas Regional Medical Center (Elizabeth) $108,348
  • Virtua Hospital (Voorhees) $2,351,694
  • Virtua Memorial Hospital (Mt. Holly) $1,203,975

CMS will announce the continuation of the imputed rural floor as part of the proposed rule to be published in the Federal Register on April 27, 2016, regarding fiscal year 2017 policy and payment changes for the hospital prospective payment systems for acute care hospitals and long-term care hospital prospective payment system. The proposed rule can be found at https://federalregister.gov/a/2016-09120 and is open for public comment before being finalized.

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