Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my friend, Senator KENT CONRAD, and others in introducing the Medicare Long-Term Care Hospital Improvement Act of 2009. This legislation would help ensure that Medicare beneficiaries continue to have access to long-term, acute-care, LTAC, hospitals. These hospitals provide inpatient care to Medicare beneficiaries who spend at least 25 days in the hospital. Typically, the average patient stay in an acute care hospital is only six days. We have several LTAC hospitals and facilities in Salt Lake, Provo, and Bountiful, UT.

Our bill would extend for two more years the LTAC hospital moratorium included in the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007, MMSEA, P.L. 110-173. While MMSEA's LTAC hospital provisions helped the LTAC hospitals, they also addressed important issues raised by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS, regarding these hospitals. Under MMSEA, new LTAC hospitals would not be allowed to open until the three year moratorium ends in 2010--the intent was to give CMS time to develop new federal standards on LTAC patient criteria. The bill that we are introducing today would extend the MMSEA moratorium for another 2 years.

To my friends in the hospital community and to those responsible for issuing federal regulations impacting the hospital community, I urge you to work together to address some of the valid concerns that have been raised with regard to LTAC hospitals. But I want these concerns addressed fairly so that beneficiaries will continue to have access to quality care and choice of long-term care coverage.

I also believe that while most LTAC hospitals provide good care in many parts of the country, the industry must do a better job convincing Congress and Federal agencies that the type of care you provide is valuable and necessary. Only truly sick patients should go to LTAC hospitals. Less medically-complex patients should be seen at less intensive facilities.

It is my hope that Federal officials making important decisions regarding LTACs get the job done. Five years ago, LTAC hospitals were told that they needed new standards and yet, we have made limited progress in this area. You need to finish this important job once and for all! It needs to be done in partnership with the LTAC community. Hopefully, the introduction of this bill will get the ball rolling in this area.

Finally, President Obama's budget guidelines for fiscal year 2010 has a bundling proposal that would include the payment of post-acute care with the hospital payment system. The Senate Finance Committee is considering a similar proposal. Therefore, I do not want to leave the impression with anyone that the introduction of this legislation is meant to delay such a proposal from moving forward. However, I do believe that should bundling be seriously considered by Congress, all stakeholders should be included in those discussions, including the LTACH hospitals.

I look forward to working with my Senate colleagues on this important bill.

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