WNY hospitals hopeful about Medicare wage adjustment proposal

Financially pinched hospitals across Western New York could be in for a $170 million annual boost under a proposed change to Medicare wage payments that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer is pushing to finalize.

According to Schumer’s office, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ recent proposed change to the Medicare wage index rate would mean an additional $967 million a year in federal funding for hospitals across upstate New York. 

The Medicare wage index rate is used to determine how much money the U.S. government pays hospitals for labor costs when they treat Medicare patients, with each metro area assigned a rate that indicates whether they receive more or less than the national average.

Often, upstate hospitals received less than the national figure. For example, Schumer’s office noted that Albany-area hospitals, since the 1980s, have received only 86% of what the average hospital receives. Under the proposed changes, Capital Region hospitals would see that increase to 122% of what the average hospital receives.

“For far too long, upstate New York hospitals have faced unfairly low Medicare payments that fell terribly short of wage demands leaving hospitals struggling to compete to bring the best doctors and nurses to upstate New York,” Schumer said in a statement. “After years of fighting though, the feds have finally shifted course, and proposed a new rule that can help finally rectify the unfair payment system, and give upstate New York the shot in the arm it has long needed.”

Schumer is pushing to get the proposal finalized by CMS, but it must go through a period of review, public input and final approval.

Western New York hospital officials have their fingers crossed.

Western New York’s largest health system called the proposed adjustment “welcomed news.”

“The CMS Medicare Wage Index rule change could rectify a structural reimbursement issue for health systems…