rural area

(2) The Secretary shall determine a national adjusted DRG prospective payment rate, for each inpatient hospital discharge in fiscal year 1984 involving inpatient hospital services of a subsection (d) hospital in the United States, and shall determine a regional adjusted DRG prospective payment rate for such discharges in each region, for which payment may be made under part A of this subchapter. Each such rate shall be determined for hospitals located in urban or rural areas within the United States or within each such region, respectively, as follows: (A) Determining allowable individual hospital costs for base period .— The Secretary shall determine the allowable operating costs per discharge of inpatient hospital services for the hospital for the most recent cost reporting period for which data are available. (B) Updating for fiscal year 1984 .— The Secretary shall update each amount determined under subparagraph (A) for fiscal year 1984 by— (i) updating for fiscal year 1983 by the estimated average rate of change of hospital costs industry-wide between the cost reporting period used under such subparagraph and fiscal year 1983 and the most recent case-mix data available, and (ii) projecting for fiscal year 1984 by the applicable percentage increase (as defined in subsection (b)(3)(B)) for fiscal year 1984. (C) Standardizing amounts .— The Secretary shall standardize the amount updated under subparagraph (B) for each hospital by— (i) excluding an estimate of indirect medical education costs (taking into account, for discharges occurring after September 30, 1986 , the amendments made by section 9104(a) of the Medicare and Medicaid Budget Reconciliation Amendments of 1985), except that the Secretary shall not take into account any reduction in the amount of additional payments under paragraph (5)(B)(ii) resulting from the amendment made by section 4621(a)(1) of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 or any additional payments under such paragraph resulting from the application of section 111 of the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999, of section 302 of the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000, or the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, (ii) adjusting for variations among hospitals by area in the average hospital wage level, (iii) adjusting for variations in case mix among hospitals, and (iv) for discharges occurring on or after October 1, 1986 , excluding an estimate of the additional payments to certain hospitals to be made under paragraph (5)(F), except that the Secretary shall not exclude additional payments under such paragraph made as a result of the enactment of section 6003(c) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989, the enactment of section 4002(b) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, the enactment of section 303 of the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000, or the enactment of section 402(a)(1) of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003. (D) Computing urban and rural averages .— The Secretary shall compute an average of the standardized amounts determined under subparagraph (C) for the United States and for each region— (i) for all subsection (d) hospitals located in an urban area within the United States or that region, respectively, and (ii) for all subsection (d) hospitals located in a rural area within the United States or that region, respectively. For purposes of this subsection, the term “region” means one of the nine census divisions, comprising the fifty States and the District of Columbia, established by the Bureau of the Census for statistical and reporting purposes; the term “urban area” means an area within a Metropolitan Statistical Area (as defined by the Office of Management and Budget) or within such similar area as the Secretary has recognized under subsection (a) by regulation; the term “large urban area” means, with respect to a fiscal year, such an urban area which the Secretary determines (in the publications described in subsection (e)(5) before the fiscal year) has a population of more than 1,000,000 (as determined by the Secretary based on the most recent available population data published by the Bureau of the Census); and the term “rural area” means any area outside such an area or similar area. A hospital located in a Metropolitan Statistical Area shall be deemed to be located in the region in which the largest number of the hospitals in the same Metropolitan Statistical Area are located, or, at the option of the Secretary, the region in which the majority of the inpatient discharges (with respect to which payments are made under this subchapter) from hospitals in the same Metropolitan Statistical Area are made. (E) Reducing for value of outlier payments .— The Secretary shall reduce each of the average standardized amounts determined under subparagraph (D) by a proportion equal to the proportion (estimated by the Secretary) of the amount of payments under this subsection based on DRG prospective payment rates which are additional payments described in paragraph (5)(A) (relating to outlier payments). (F) Maintaining budget neutrality .— The Secretary shall adjust each of such average standardized amounts as may be required under subsection (e)(1)(B) for that fiscal year. (G) Computing drg-specific rates for urban and rural hospitals in the united states and in each region .— For each discharge classified within a diagnosis-related group, the Secretary shall establish a national DRG prospective payment rate and shall establish a regional DRG prospective payment rate for each region, each of which is equal— (i) for hospitals located in an urban area in the United States or that region (respectively), to the product of— (I) the average standardized amount (computed under subparagraph (D), reduced under subparagraph (E), and adjusted under subparagraph (F)) for hospitals located in an urban area in the United States or that region, and (II) the weighting factor (determined under paragraph (4)(B)) for that diagnosis-related group; and (ii) for hospitals located in a rural area in the United States or that region (respectively), to the product of— (I) the average standardized amount (computed under subparagraph (D), reduced under subparagraph (E), and adjusted under subparagraph (F)) for hospitals located in a rural area in the United States or that region, and (II) the weighting factor (determined under paragraph (4)(B)) for that diagnosis-related group. (H) Adjusting for different area wage levels .— The Secretary shall adjust the proportion, (as estimated by the Secretary from time to time) of hospitals’ costs which are attributable to wages and wage-related costs, of the national and regional DRG prospective payment rates computed under subparagraph (G) for area differences in hospital wage levels by a factor (established by the Secretary) reflecting the relative hospital wage level in the geographic area of the hospital compared to the national average hospital wage level.

Source

42 USC § 1395ww(d)(2)


Scoping language

For purposes of this subsection
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