Upstate NY hospitals may get $1B boost in Medicare funds. See your hospital’s haul
Hospitals across upstate New York are poised to get a nearly $1 billion increase in Medicare funding per year under new federal rules, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer said Friday.
The added federal dollars would begin flowing, the New York Democrat said, if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approves the proposed Medicare wage cost rules change as expected in August.
The measure comes as many patients in New York now face lengthy wait times at emergency rooms and, in some areas, cutbacks in medical services as hospitals struggle financially due, in part, to historic inflation and rising costs for labor, drugs and other essential supplies.
The rules are connected to differences in how Medicare calculates payments to hospitals based on workforce costs in each community, called the Medicare Wage Index rate. Schumer and other federal lawmakers have spent years pushing to change the rules, which they asserted unfairly shortchanged upstate hospitals compared to national averages.
"The amount of money that is going to hospitals — well deserved — means that just about every aspect of health care will improve for upstate New Yorkers," Schumer said in a media briefing.
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The percentage that Medicare wage funding will increase varies by region, ranging from 12.5% in Ithaca to 43% in Albany, he added, noting the Albany area was getting only 86% of what the average hospital received each year since the 1980s.
How much more Medicare funding will NY hospitals get?
The total estimated increase in Medicare funding by region includes:
Finger Lakes: $242.6 million
Southern Tier: $111.3 million
Mohawk Valley: $87.3 million
Capital Region: $193 million
North Country: $41.7 million
Central New York: $121.4 million
Western New York: $170.1 million
What follows are estimated increases in Medicare payments for specific hospitals in the Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley.
Finger Lakes
Clifton Springs Hospital and Clinic: $5,751,000
F.F. Thompson Hospital in Canandaigua: $12.3 million
Geneva General Hospital: $6.9 million
Newark-Wayne Community Hospital: $7.5 million
Nicholas H. Noyes Community Hospital in Dansville: $4.3 million
United Memorial Medical Center in Batavia: $8.5 million
Wyoming County Community Health Center: $2.1 million
Highland Hospital in Rochester: $16.8 million
Rochester General Hospital: $57.5 million
Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester: $82.2 million
Unity Hospital in Greece: $38.9 million
Unity Specialty Hospital: $23,721
Southern Tier
Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca: $6.4 million
Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital in Binghamton: $24.4 million
UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital: $3.9 million
United Health Services Hospitals, Inc. (Binghamton area): $43.9 million
Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira: $17.6 million
Guthrie Corning Hospital: $11.3 million
Ira Davenport Memorial Hospital: $816,775
St. James Hospital in Hornell: $3 million
Mohawk Valley
A.O. Fox Hospital in Oneonta: $4 million
Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown: $20.4 million
Nathan Littauer Hospital in Gloversville: $5.6 million
St. Mary's Healthcare in Amsterdam: $10.6 million
Faxton St. Luke's Healthcare in Utica: $23.2 million
Rome Health: $5 million
St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica: $18.3 million
This article originally appeared on New York State Team: Upstate NY hospitals may get $1B boost in Medicare funds. See the list
