Phil Gingrey: “I am glad that the gentleman asked about that because in the hospital payment system, there has been this disparity for…”

“I am glad that the gentleman asked about that because in the hospital payment system, there has been this disparity for a long time. The rural hospitals and the rural physicians, those doctors who are practicing in an area outside of a metropolitan service area or a big city, they are reimbursed for the exact same service at a lower rate than a doctor who might be practicing in Boston or Atlanta or Denver, and there is just something wrong with that system. Again, that has been addressed. In fact, if the gentleman will allow me to read here, there are hospitals referred to as disproportionate share facilities, by that I mean a disproportionate share of Medicare and Medicaid patients in their population. Some of these hospitals are in small towns, and I know in my district and probably the gentleman's district, but I know for sure in southwest and northwest Georgia, the 17 counties that I represent, in some of the towns in the county, the hospital is the major employer in town. It is the only source of revenue and health care. When they are seeing mostly Medicare and Medicaid patients, and there is not much industry so there is not much good, private health insurance, they do not have full pay rather than deeply discounted pay that we have under Medicare and Medicaid, and if we continue to treat them in an unfair manner, not only does health care go away, but jobs go away as well.”