[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 24, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H1374]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            MEDICARE MODERNIZATION ACT HELPS RURAL HOSPITALS

  (Mr. SHIMKUS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank today's guest chaplain who 
talked about the blessings of leadership on this great Nation, which is 
our task at hand. One of those tasks was the Medicare Modernization 
Act, which provided great help to this country at large.
  I want to focus primarily on one part of the Medicare prescription 
drug plan and the representation of the most generous package ever to 
rural health care providers. The Medicare law equalizes payments so 
that rural and suburban hospitals receive billions in much-needed 
relief over the next decade. They will receive continued standardized 
amounts of assistance without pause, increased help for DSH rural and 
small urban hospitals, adjusted payments to low volume hospitals to 
provide more equitable reimbursements for health care costs, and 
greater flexibility for rural and small urban hospitals to have more 
graduate medical residents providing better care.
  We should not have a discrepancy between the care in urban and 
suburban areas and rural health care. The Medicare Modernization Act is 
the best health care package that rural America has ever seen. I am 
glad it was passed, and I look forward to the implementation of the 
law.

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