The Kerry Kickback
Senator Secures $3.5 Billion Windfall for Massachusetts Hospitals
By Andrew Stiles
The Washington Free Beacon
February 15, 2012 5:00 am
Massachusetts hospitals are poised to receive a $3.5 billion windfall in federal funding over the next 10 years thanks to a little-known provision Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) inserted into the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act, also known as “Obamacare.”
The increased funding—$367 million a year in the form of Medicare reimbursement payments, according to the Federal Register—would not only come at the expense of hospitals in the 49 other states, but would also directly benefit an organization that has given generously to Kerry’s campaign.
The obscure policy change was formally approved by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in July 2011. It was prompted by a small, 15-bed hospital located on the upscale island of Nantucket, a popular vacation spot for wealthy New Englanders where Kerry and his wife own a $9 million waterfront home.
Nantucket Cottage Hospital, which had been operating under a special “critical access” status, sought a number of years ago to be reclassified as a “rural” hospital. The CMS approved the change for fiscal year 2012—a minor adjustment on paper, but one with profound implications.
The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established a “rural floor” for hospital labor costs (which are used to determine reimbursement rates) mandating that hospitals in urban areas within a given state cannot be paid less than those in rural areas.
Until Nantucket Cottage Hospital made the switch, Massachusetts had no rural hospitals in operation, so the conversion meant that the small hospital, where wages are quite high given its isolated location and high cost of living, would effectively set reimbursement rates for the entire state. The prospect was so appealing to the state’s mainland hospitals that they urged Nantucket Cottage to make the change, and even agreed to reimburse it for any financial losses incurred as a result of the change. ...
Remainder of article @ http://freebeacon.com/the-kerry-kickback/
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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