August 5, 2023
Dear Friends,
Throughout my time in public office, I’ve made it a top priority to ensure that every resident of our Capital Region has access to affordable, high-quality healthcare. Working alongside local hospitals, healthcare professionals, and patients, I’ve worked tirelessly to make certain that our healthcare providers have the resources they need to best serve our communities. As part of that work, I’ve spent years leading the charge to fix a broken formula that has long deprived our region’s hospitals of desperately needed federal funding.
This system — known as the Medicare Wage Index, or MWI — determines the rate at which hospitals in regions across the country are reimbursed for services provided to Medicare recipients. Calculated by measuring local cost of living and other factors, these reimbursements play a critical role in the financial health of our local hospitals and their capacity to treat all patients, not just Medicare recipients. But for decades, our Capital Region has been given short shrift by this outdated formula, receiving just 86 cents on the dollar from MWI while hospitals in other nearby areas received much higher rates.
This is a fundamental issue of fairness, and I’ve been at the forefront of efforts to right this wrong ever since my days in the New York State Assembly. That’s why this April, I was thrilled that, after years of advocacy, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finally heeded our call with the announcement of a proposed rule that would boost our region’s MWI calculation by more than 40 percent, from $0.86 on the dollar to $1.22.
From the moment this announcement was made, I set to work doing everything in my power to ensure this rule was finalized.
As part of that effort, I spoke directly with key Biden administration officials, including CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, to emphasize the importance of this adjustment. I visited CMS to personally deliver a letter highlighting the impact this change will have, and led a bipartisan letter from New York’s congressional delegation urging that this policy be enacted into law. And in June, I traveled to each of our district’s hospitals (Albany Medical Center, Ellis Hospital, Samaritan Hospital, Saratoga Hospital, and St. Peter’s Hospital) to hear firsthand about what this funding would mean for their ability to provide affordable, quality care in our region.
On that tour, I heard a rousing chorus of voices in support of this critical effort. Hospital executives told me about the dire financial challenges this unfair formula has caused for our healthcare providers, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and about the new, cutting-edge equipment they could acquire with a boost in funding. I heard from doctors and nurses about how more federal dollars would alleviate critical staffing shortages, allowing our hospitals to offer competitive pay to skilled healthcare professionals looking to put down roots in our communities. And patients described the peace of mind they felt knowing that whether they were giving birth or battling a disease like cancer, top-notch care was only a short ride away.
This feedback filled my voice as I continued to advocate for this crucial proposal. Those years pushing for justice culminated with the announcement this week that CMS has finalized this policy. Without a doubt — this is a game-changer for our Capital Region healthcare providers. When the new fiscal year begins on October 1st, this sorely needed investment will start delivering more than $190 million in additional federal funding for our Capital Region hospitals every year. This means better staff pay and improved retention, upgraded equipment, and further investments in patient care at every one of our region’s healthcare centers. In short, this adjustment means improved, high-quality care across our Capital Region.
Although I’m proud of my efforts to secure this historic policy change, this fight could not have been won alone. I’m deeply grateful to our Senators and to House leadership for uplifting this effort, and I’m especially thankful to the hospital leaders, staff, and patients who shared their stories with me and stood with me every step of the way as we worked to amend this injustice and deliver this vital funding. In fact, in its final decision establishing this rule as the law of the land, CMS cited the overwhelming public comments as a significant factor in its determination.
This is a huge win for our Capital Region and all who call it home, but it does not spell the end of our efforts to support our healthcare workers and ensure the longevity of our region’s hospitals. Going forward, I am eager to continue working to make certain that these institutions continue to deliver the quality care on which our Capital Region families rely.
As always, thank you for reading.
Your friend,
DID YOU KNOW?
My office and I are working to make sure you remain informed with the latest updates and recommendations from federal agencies. With that in mind, here is some information that may be of interest to you:
- This August, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is celebrating National Breastfeeding Month with new resources on the rights of nursing employees to pump at work.
- With the enactment of the PUMP Act in December 2022, almost every nursing worker now has federal protections for their right to break time and a private space to express breast milk for their nursing child.
- You can access a wide variety of resources on the PUMP Act from DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) HERE, including:
- You can also look out for a series of upcoming webinars explaining how enhanced protections impact your industry, featuring live Q&A after each session. These webinars will follow the schedule below:
- September: Webinar for Farmworkers
- October: Webinar for Retail and Restaurant Workers
- November: Webinar for Care Industries
- December: Webinar for Teachers
- January: Webinar for Transportation Workers
- To get more details about these webinars as they approach, sign up HERE for WHD’s newsletter!
