Following legislative efforts to successfully expand CMS' "rural floor policy" this year, 17 New Jersey hospitals will benefit from a $36.5 million boost in federal funding to pay physicians and providers for treating Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Despite the scattered landscape in some regions, New Jersey is one of three states that contain no rural designated areas under Medicare guidelines. The state previously received supplemental funding from CMS to support labor costs in less-populated areas due to the high costs of care.
Due to New Jersey's lack of rural designated areas, when CMS implemented the rural floor policy — designed to protect healthcare wages in certain rural designated states — the state was no longer eligible to receive funding for physician compensation.
However, this year U.S. Sens Robert Mendez (D) and Cory Booker (D) wrote to federal officials urging them to include New Jersey in the funding pool to offset the high cost of care in the region despite not having any rural-designated areas and they were successful.
"The [rural policy] floor extension ensures that New Jersey hospitals and health systems will receive federal payments that are fair and equitable with other states that have the protection of a rural floor," Kerry McKean Kelley, the New Jersey Hospital Association's vice president for communications, told the Inquirer.