Fair Medicare Reimbursement for Health Centers

Press Release

Fair Medicare Reimbursement for Health Centers

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today joined an effort to ensure community health care centers are fairly and adequately reimbursed for treating Medicare patients.

Currently, community health centers are subjected to a cap on their Medicare reimbursements which over time has resulted in most centers being reimbursed at less than their costs. As a result, health centers - which are key providers of primary care in many rural communities across the country - end up having to subsedize care to Medicare patients.

The Medicare Access to Community Health Center (MATCH) Act, authored by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), would ensure that health centers are properly reimbursed. If enacted, the measure would increase payments by an estimated $51 million annually to federally qualified health centers across America.

Sanders said, "The issue of the crisis of primary health care is an issue that we as a nation must begin to address. Community health centers provide quality primary care at a significant savings for millions of Americans, but 60 million Americans still lack meaningful access to primary health care, dental care, mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs."

Senator Sanders is a cosponsor of the MATCH Act, S. 638, which was also cosponsored by Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and introduced in the House of Representatives by John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.).

Senator Sanders and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) have also introduced the Access for All Americans Act which would authorize $8.3 billion annually at the end of five years to expand the number of Federally Qualified Health Centers from 1,100 to 4,800, which would provide primary health care for all Americans living in communities lacking adequate health care services.

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