17 NJ hospitals, 3 in Mercer County, to get $32.8M in new federal funding
TRENTON » Seventeen hospitals across New Jersey, including Saint Francis Medical Center in Trenton, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Hamilton and Capital Health’s medical center in Hopewell Township, will collectively receive $32.8 million in additional federal funding to treat elderly patients.
U.S. Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, along with several of New Jersey’s U.S. House members, on Thursday announced the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is temporarily extending a key Medicare policy to provide New Jersey hospitals with fair and equitable payments to support physicians and other health care professionals providing care to seniors and lowincome patients.
“This extension of the Medicare imputed f loor wage index for another year will yet again help level the playing field for New Jersey’s hospitals,” Booker said in a press statement. “The imputed rural floor provides not only muchneeded equity in Medicare reimbursements for New Jersey’s affected hospitals, but it also allows our state to continue to provide high quality healthcare to our residents.”
President Donald Trump’s administration originally wanted to discontinue giving those funds to the all-urban Garden State, but New Jersey’s congressional delegation made a united and bipartisan request urging the administration to reconsider its proposal.
The state’s U.S. sena- tors and representatives in a joint letter dated May 24 said the imputed wage index floor for all-urban states like New Jersey should be made permanent or, in the very least, get extended for at least another year. The Trump administration has opted to extend the additional funds for at least another year from Oct. 1, 2017, to Sept. 30, 2018.
“I am proud to stand with the entire New Jersey delegation to continue to support this important policy until we can implement a permanent solution,” Booker said.
It was not clear on Thursday how the pool of $32.8 million will be distributed in New Jersey, but 17 hospitals in the state are expected to be beneficiaries of the additional funding. If each hospital is given an equal share, each of the hospitals would receive nearly $2 million.