Medicare Hospital Payments: Adjusting for Variation in Geographic Area Wages
Link
Description
Provides an overview of the use of the hospital wage index applied to the Medicare inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) to account for geographic differences in hospitals' labor costs. Discusses the effect of the wage index on Medicare payments for inpatient hospital services, exceptions to wage index adjustments, and proposals for wage index reforms.
Date
03/2021
Type
Document
Organization
Congressional Research Service
Tagged as
Hospitals · Inpatient care · Legislation and regulations · Medicare · Reimbursement and payment models · Rural-urban differences