Tenney backs effort for rural hospitals

Rep. Claudia Tenney, NY-22, New Hartford; Antonio Delgado, NY-19; John Katko, NY-24; Tom Reed, NY-23 and Elise Stefanik, NY-21, have introduced the Access for Rural Communities Act (H.R. 3069), a bipartisan bill to support rural hospitals in maintaining operations, according to a release.

“Following a 2015 decision made by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that retroactively changed how hospitals were to be reimbursed, 16 small rural hospitals throughout New York were suddenly burdened with having to repay Medicare contractors for payments they received years earlier,” Tenney said in a statement.

“Because of mistakes made by contractors and arbitrary, retroactive changes by the federal government, New York hospitals now owe between $15 to $20 million. Many of these hospitals are already in need of greater support and assistance,” Tenney’s statement adds.