Rural Hospital Relief Act of 1999

Summary

Rural Hospital Relief Act of 1999 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to: (1) revise the prospective payment system (PPS) for hospital outpatient department (OPD) services with regard to the calculation of base amounts, in order to eliminate the (unintended) reduction in the conversion factor for the Medicare OPD PPS; (2) exclude certain ambulance services and swing-bed days from the Medicare skilled nursing facility PPS; (3) modify the Medicare rural hospital flexibility program and other related Medicare requirements with regard to criteria for designation as a critical access hospital; (4) reduce from 45 percent to ten percent the amount of bad debts otherwise treated as allowable costs attributable to deductibles and coinsurance amounts under Medicare for cost reporting periods beginning after FY 1999 in determining reasonable costs for hospitals; (5) prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services from applying productivity guidelines in determining the reasonable costs of rural health clinics for services furnished in calendar years 1998 through 2001; and (6) tie inflation updates for hospitals and skilled nursing facilities located in rural areas to the market basket percentage increase for them. Amends the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 to establish a temporary limit on reductions in Federal payments for covered OPD services furnished by a hospital in a rural area during a calendar year. Provides that the entire amount necessary to carry out this Act and the amendments made by it shall be available only to the extent that an official budget request for the entire amount, that includes designation of the entire amount of the request as an emergency requirement under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm- Rudman-Hollings Act), as amended, is transmitted by the President to Congress, if that entire amount is designated by Congress as an emergency requirement.

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Documents

3 official files

• Introduced in Senate (text)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 20 October 1999

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• Introduced in Senate (PDF)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 20 October 1999

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• Introduced in Senate

  summary · EN · 20 October 1999

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