Support RURAL Beneficiaries and Providers: Vote YES on Rangel-Dingell Substitute!

Dear Democratic Colleague:

Rural health care providers are an essential part of local communities, providing access to critical health care as well as providing an important component of local economies.

The Rangel-Dingell substitute recognizes the important contribution rural providers make to communities and includes a number of provisions to ensure that rural areas are treated fairly with respect to reimbursements under Medicare. The Rangel-Dingell substitute includes the same provisions as the Thomas bill for rural providers but then goes beyond the provisions in the Thomas bill, H.R. 1, providing at a minimum an additional $10 billion additional relief for rural areas. *

Key additional provisions in the Rangel-Dingell substitute that are not included in Thomas are:

Increased payment floor for rural physicians by increasing work, malpractice, and practice expense adjustment to 1.0 ($5.1 billion);

	Increased payments of up to 25 percent for small, low-volume hospitals ($1.9 billion);
	Increased Medicare DSH funding for rural facilities with no cap ($3.2 billion);
	Increased rural ground ambulance payments ($6.0 billion)**;
	Increased assistance of 10 percent for rural home health agencies ($0.3 billion);
	Increased payments for laboratory services for sole community hospitals ($0.3 billion).

The Rangel-Dingell substitute also DOES NOT INCLUDE provisions in the Thomas bill that will harm seniors and/or providers:

X      NO harmful Medicare privatization provisions;
X      NO cuts to hospital inpatient payments;
X      NO home health co-payment;
X      NO increase in Part B deductible for seniors;
X      NO means-tested benefits;
X      NO disclosure of seniors’ private tax return information
         to HMOs.

I urge you to SUPPORT the Rangel-Dingell substitute. Help the providers and seniors who live in rural areas.