ADVISORY
FROM THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTH

Johnson Announces Hearing on Rural Health Care in Medicare

Congresswoman Nancy L. Johnson (R-CT), Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Rural Health Care: Provider and Beneficiary Issues. The hearing will take place on Tuesday, June 12, 2001, in the main Committee hearing room, 1100 Longworth House Office Building, beginning at 10:00 am.

In view of the limited time available to hear witnesses, oral testimony at this hearing will be from invited witnesses only. Witnesses will include the chairman of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and rural health care experts. However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.

BACKGROUND:

Rural health policy has an important place on the agenda of this Committee. In recent years, Congress has acted to ensure that rural beneficiaries have access to needed health care services. In the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Congress created a new class of providers -- Critical Access Hospitals -- to ensure that the capacity for emergency and ambulatory services are protected in the most isolated rural areas while retaining a limited capacity for inpatient care. In the Balanced Budget Refinement Act (BBRA) and the Beneficiary Improvement and Protection Act (BIPA), Congress moved further to protect the delivery of emergency care for Critical Access providers by improving ambulance service payment and covering the costs of retaining physicians to provide on-call services to emergency rooms.

Further, the BBRA and BIPA increased Medicare payments for rural hospitals, above and beyond Balanced Budget Act corrections. Sole community hospitals will be paid based on updated information on the costs of providing services to patients in their community - the first significant change in the program since 1989. The eligibility for Medicare disproportionate share payments was equalized between urban and rural hospitals, correcting the disparity in who can receive these payments that has existed since 1990. Finally, the Medicare dependent hospital program was extended and the eligibility broadened to new hospitals.

Regardless, the demographic, social, cultural, and economic changes that affect rural populations are different in many respects than those for urban populations. Rural America is growing more slowly and its population is older than the rest of the nation. In Rural Health in the United States, researchers report that despite these differences the overall health status indicators for rural residents is similar to that of urban residents. Chairman Johnson stated: "Medicare policy must continue to ensure that the rural elderly and disabled have access to high quality care. The program should closely monitor their access and health status. Moreover, we may need to act to modernize the program when gaps are identified, for example, fewer rural beneficiaries have Medigap insurance and are more likely to have limited coverage."

FOCUS OF THE HEARING:

The hearing's first panel will report on the findings from the congressionally mandated MedPAC report on how Medicare is working for rural beneficiaries and recommendations for changes in Medicare. The second panel includes rural experts who will discuss access to services and the equity of the Medicare benefit structure. The panel will also discuss whether the many rural provider programs protect vulnerable rural communities.

DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:

Any person or organization wishing to submit a written statement for the printed record of the hearing should submit six (6) single-spaced copies of their statement, along with an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect or MS Word format, with their name, address, and hearing date noted on a label, by the close of business, Tuesday, June 26, 2001, to Allison Giles, Chief of Staff, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 1102 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. If those filing written statements wish to have their statements distributed to the press and interested public at the hearing, they may deliver 200 additional copies for this purpose to the Subcommittee on Health office, room 1136 Longworth House Office Building, by close of business the day before the hearing.

FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:

Each statement presented for printing to the Committee by a witness, any written statement or exhibit submitted for the printed record or any written comments in response to a request for written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any statement or exhibit not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.

1. All statements and any accompanying exhibits for printing must be submitted on an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect or MS Word format, typed in single space and may not exceed a total of 10 pages including attachments. Witnesses are advised that the Committee will rely on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing record.

2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material will not be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be referenced and quoted or paraphrased. All exhibit material not meeting these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.

3. A witness appearing at a public hearing, or submitting a statement for the record of a public hearing, or submitting written comments in response to a published request for comments by the Committee, must include on his statement or submission a list of all clients, persons, or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears.

4. A supplemental sheet must accompany each statement listing the name, company, address, telephone and fax numbers where the witness or the designated representative may be reached. This supplemental sheet will not be included in the printed record.

The above restrictions and limitations apply only to material being submitted for printing. Statements and exhibits or supplementary material submitted solely for distribution to the Members, the press, and the public during the course of a public hearing may be submitted in other forms.

Note: All Committee advisories and news releases are available on the World Wide Web at "http://waysandmeans.house.gov".

The Committee seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please call 202-225-1721 or 202-226-3411 TTD/TTY in advance of the event (four business days notice is requested). Questions with regard to special accommodation needs in general (including availability of Committee materials in alternative formats) may be directed to the Committee as noted above.