Byron Dorgan: “one piece of this legislation that I think is particularly important are the provisions dealing with Medicare…”

“one piece of this legislation that I think is particularly important are the provisions dealing with Medicare reimbursement for rural hospitals and other rural health care providers. I know he talked about how this Senate has dealt with this concern before, and we have. In fact, we had a very strong vote on it. But at this point, significant legislation has not been signed into law. The fact is, his constituents in Iowa and mine in North Dakota pay the same payroll tax out of our paychecks as everybody else in the country, except we do not get the same reimbursement for much of what our providers do. And the result is, some very important health care facilities in smaller rural States, in smaller communities, are struggling and having an awfully difficult time making it because the provider reimbursement system is not fair. I want to compliment my colleague from Iowa and others who have worked on this. I have been pleased to work on it some, but his leadership is very important in this area. That is one piece of this legislation to which I think we need to pay some attention.”