[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3500 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3500

     To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to codify and 
   permanently extend the Medicare hospital wage index imputed rural 
                                 floor.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 12, 2020

Mr. Menendez (for himself, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Carper, Mr. Booker, Mr. 
  Reed, and Mr. Coons) 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 codify and 
   permanently extend the Medicare hospital wage index imputed rural 
                                 floor.

    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 Wage Index Parity Act of 
2020''.

SEC. 2. IMPUTED FLOOR ON THE AREA WAGE INDEX.

    Section 1886(d)(3)(E) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
1395ww(d)(3)(E)) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
clause:
                    ``(iv) Floor on wage index for hospitals in all-
                urban states.--
                            ``(I) In general.--For purposes of applying 
                        the area wage index applicable under this 
                        subparagraph, for discharges occurring on or 
                        after October 1, 2018, the Secretary shall 
                        establish a minimum wage index for all-urban 
                        States (as defined in subclause (IV)).
                            ``(II) Minimum wage index.--For purposes of 
                        subclause (I), the minimum wage index for all-
                        urban States shall be established by the 
                        Secretary using the methodology described in 
                        section 412.64(h)(4) of title 42, Code of 
                        Federal Regulations, as in effect for fiscal 
                        year 2018.
                            ``(III) Administration.--The Secretary 
                        shall administer the minimum wage index 
                        described in this clause in the same manner 
                        described in section 3141 of Public Law 111-148 
                        (through a uniform, national adjustment to the 
                        area wage index).
                            ``(IV) All-urban state defined.--In this 
                        clause, the term `all-urban State' means a 
                        State in which there are no rural areas (as 
                        defined in subsection (d)(2)(D) of section 1886 
                        of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
                        1395ww(d)(2)(D))), or a State in which there 
                        are no hospitals classified as rural under such 
                        section.''.
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