The Area Wage Index of the Medicare Inpatient Hospital Prospective Payment System: Perspectives, Policies, and Choices

Date
08/2000
Description

This policy paper summarizes the positions of various rural health advocates and recording the actions taken by Congress and the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) to improve the wage index. Finally, it outlines the research needed to energize the policy discussion of the uses and methods of calculating the hospital wage index. Report produced by the RUPRI Rural Health Panel.

Center
RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
Authors
Anthony Wellever, Andrew Coburn, Charles Fluharty, J. Patrick Hart, A. Clinton MacKinney, Timothy McBride, Keith Mueller, Rebecca Slifkin