Ms. McMorris Rodgers said roughly 25 percent of the country’s population — 75 million people — live in rural areas, but only 10 percent of physicians practice in those areas.
In addition to increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments for rural hospitals, HR 3859 — or the Rural Hospital and Provider Equity Act of 2012 — would boost payments for lab services, continue geographic reclassification for certain hospitals in sparsely populated states and extend expiring Medicare incentive payments for rural physicians and other providers.
