Kevin Roberts: “this amendment protects the rural health care delivery system by exempting critical access hospitals from dangerous…”

“this amendment protects the rural health care delivery system by exempting critical access hospitals from dangerous payment cuts by the Independent Payment Advisory Board. This board is an unelected and unaccountable body, nefarious to be sure, with unprecedented power to set payment rates and make other Medicare policy changes. While most hospitals are exempt from the board's cuts by virtue of the special deals they cut with the administration--for shame--critical access hospitals, which are among the most vulnerable in the country, are not exempt. I do not know why critical access hospitals were let out of this exemption--perhaps a drafting error; I do not know--but I can think of no other more deserving providers than critical access hospitals throughout our rural areas--in Montana and in Kansas--to be spared from the Independent Payment Advisory Board's cuts. Save the rural health care delivery system.”