Today, U.S. Representatives Bill Pascrell, Jr. (NJ-09), Tom MacArthur (NJ-03), Donald Norcross (NJ-01), and the entire New Jersey congressional delegation introduced legislation to ensure New Jersey hospitals and healthcare facilities are properly reimbursed for services after the Trump administration harmed Garden State hospitals by reversing a longstanding policy.

“The Trump administration has again decided to come after New Jersey,” said Rep. Pascrell, New Jersey’s only member of the House Ways and Means Committee that oversees the Medicare program. “For the eight years of the Obama presidency and even before that, the delegation came together in support of a wage index floor for all-urban states. This request was always administratively renewed. We are seeking a legislative fix now that the Trump White House shockingly denied our request. By eliminating the imputed floor policy, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will bleed dry healthcare providers in the state. This in turn makes it harder for these hospitals and healthcare facilities to recruit their workforce, since they will now be forced to compete with neighboring states that benefit from the rural floor and are reimbursed at higher rates. The impact of Trump’s new policy is significant.”

The Imputed Rural Floor policy was put into place in 2005 to correct years of unequal treatment for New Jersey’s hospitals. The policy provided them with benefits similar to those granted to hospitals in 47 other states through the longstanding application of a rural hospital wage index. The imputed floor is meant to ensure that New Jersey hospitals are not unfairly disadvantaged by the state’s all-urban status. This policy has been extended consistently until the recently finalized Fiscal Year 2019 Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment (IPPS) rule, where the Trump administration permanently ended the imputed floor. The proposed legislation is necessary to reverse this harmful decision and restore equitable reimbursement for state healthcare providers.

Pascrell concluded, “Our bill will save New Jersey millions. I look forward to working with my colleagues to advance this important legislation, which would promote equity in Medicare reimbursement and support the ability of our hospitals to continue providing quality and affordable care for our communities.”

Earlier this year, Reps. Pascrell and MacArthur, along with Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and the entire New Jersey delegation, led bipartisan letters in February and again in May to CMS outlining the importance of the imputed floor to New Jersey hospitals and their patients, and urging CMS to extend the policy.