[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1890 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1890

    To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide that 
   geographic reclassifications of hospitals from one urban area to 
  another urban area do not result in lower wage indexes in the urban 
         area in which the hospital was originally classified.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            November 9, 1999

  Mr. Santorum (for himself and Mr. Specter) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide that 
   geographic reclassifications of hospitals from one urban area to 
  another urban area do not result in lower wage indexes in the urban 
         area in which the hospital was originally classified.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Medicare Geographic 
Reclassifications Equity Act of 1999''.

SEC. 2. APPLICATION OF WAGE INDEX FLOOR FOR HOSPITAL GEOGRAPHIC 
              RECLASSIFICATIONS FROM ONE URBAN AREA TO ANOTHER URBAN 
              AREA.

    (a) In General.--Section 1886(d)(8)(C)(ii) of the Social Security 
Act (42 U.S.C. 1395ww(d)(8)(C)(ii)) is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``(I)'' after ``(ii)''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subclause:
    ``(II) If the application of subparagraph (B) or a decision of the 
Medicare Geographic Classification Review Board or the Secretary under 
paragraph (10), by treating hospitals located in one urban area as 
being located in another urban area reduces the wage index for that one 
urban area (as applied under this subsection), the Secretary shall 
calculate and apply such wage index under this subsection as if the 
hospitals so treated had not been excluded from the calculation of the 
wage index for that one urban area.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) apply to 
cost reporting periods beginning on or after October 1, 1999.
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