August 2019 Group Watch: AL Hospitals Benefit from Medicare Change
Hospital industry officials are pleased with a recent rule change that will provide wage index increases for four years to hospitals that have been on the low end of reimbursement. Senator Richard Shelby, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced the rule change earlier this month. The change in 2020 will mean an additional $38 million a year for Alabama’s nearly 100 hospitals. The wage index disparity has hurt Alabama’s rural hospitals, 88 percent of which operate in the red. About 40 percent of hospital care in the state is covered by Medicare, thus impacting urban hospitals as well.
