Bill Would Boost Some IT Payments

A bill introduced in Congress last week would increase the amount of payments to multicampus hospitals that meet federal meaningful-use standards for implementing electronic health records.

Hospitals with multiple campuses now receive the same incentive payments as single-campus hospitals. Multicampus hospitals argue that they should be rewarded with higher payments because their EHR implementation costs are higher, Healthcare IT News reports.

The Equal Access and Parity for Multi-Campus Hospitals Act, HR 2500, was introduced by Texas Republicans Michael Burgess and Kevin Brady, and New York Democrats Eliot Engel and Charlie Rangel.

"As Washington encourages healthcare providers to improve their IT systems, we want to ensure equal funding treatment for hospitals with multiple campuses. This will accelerate state-of-the-art technology and coordination, and will fulfill the intention of Congress," Brady says in a news release.

In announcing the bill's introduction, the four House members cite "incremental acquisition, training, and implementation costs" faced by multicampus hospitals when adopting health IT systems. "The legislation clarifies that the health IT incentives in the Recovery Act should address these costs and offers choices for how the campuses receive these incentive payments, reflecting differences between large and small multi-campus hospital systems."

The bill has the support of the American Hospital Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges.