The Area Wage Index of the Medicare Inpatient Hospital Prospective Payment System: Perspectives, Policies, and Choices
This policy paper discusses the positions of various rural health advocates on the wage index and recording the actions taken by Congress and the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) to improve the wage index.
Finally, it outlines the research needed to energize the policy discussion of the uses and methods of calculating the hospital wage index.
This report was written by Health Panel Members Anthony Wellever, Andrew Coburn, Charles Fluharty, J. Patrick Hart, A. Clinton MacKinney, Timothy McBride, Keith Mueller, Rebecca Slifkin; published Aug. 27, 2000.
