all-urban State
(3) The Secretary shall determine a national adjusted DRG prospective payment rate, for each inpatient hospital discharge in a fiscal year after fiscal year 1984 involving inpatient hospital services of a subsection (d) hospital in the United States, and shall determine, for fiscal years before fiscal year 1997, a regional adjusted DRG prospective payment rate for such discharges in each region for which payment may be made under part A of this subchapter. Each such rate shall be determined for hospitals located in large urban, other urban, or rural areas within the United States and within each such region, respectively, as follows: (A) Updating previous standardized amounts .— (i) For discharges occurring in a fiscal year beginning before October 1, 1987 , the Secretary shall compute an average standardized amount for hospitals located in an urban area and for hospitals located in a rural area within the United States and for hospitals located in an urban area and for hospitals located in a rural area within each region, equal to the respective average standardized amount computed for the previous fiscal year under paragraph (2)(D) or under this subparagraph, increased for the fiscal year involved by the applicable percentage increase under subsection (b)(3)(B). With respect to discharges occurring on or after October 1, 1987 , the Secretary shall compute urban and rural averages on the basis of discharge weighting rather than hospital weighting, making appropriate adjustments to ensure that computation on such basis does not result in total payments under this section that are greater or less than the total payments that would have been made under this section but for this sentence, and making appropriate changes in the manner of determining the reductions under subparagraph (C)(ii). (ii) For discharges occurring in a fiscal year beginning on or after October 1, 1987 , and ending on or before September 30, 1994 , the Secretary shall compute an average standardized amount for hospitals located in a large urban area, for hospitals located in a rural area, and for hospitals located in other urban areas, within the United States and within each region, equal to the respective average standardized amount computed for the previous fiscal year under this subparagraph increased by the applicable percentage increase under subsection (b)(3)(B)(i) with respect to hospitals located in the respective areas for the fiscal year involved. (iii) For discharges occurring in the fiscal year beginning on October 1, 1994 , the average standardized amount for hospitals located in a rural area shall be equal to the average standardized amount for hospitals located in an urban area. For discharges occurring on or after October 1, 1994 , the Secretary shall adjust the ratio of the labor portion to non-labor portion of each average standardized amount to equal such ratio for the national average of all standardized amounts. (iv) (I) Subject to subclause (II), for discharges occurring in a fiscal year beginning on or after October 1, 1995 , the Secretary shall compute an average standardized amount for hospitals located in a large urban area and for hospitals located in other areas within the United States and within each region equal to the respective average standardized amount computed for the previous fiscal year under this subparagraph increased by the applicable percentage increase under subsection (b)(3)(B)(i) with respect to hospitals located in the respective areas for the fiscal year involved. (II) For discharges occurring in a fiscal year (beginning with fiscal year 2004), the Secretary shall compute a standardized amount for hospitals located in any area within the United States and within each region equal to the standardized amount computed for the previous fiscal year under this subparagraph for hospitals located in a large urban area (or, beginning with fiscal year 2005, for all hospitals in the previous fiscal year) increased by the applicable percentage increase under subsection (b)(3)(B)(i) for the fiscal year involved. (v) Average standardized amounts computed under this paragraph shall be adjusted to reflect the most recent case-mix data available. (vi) Insofar as the Secretary determines that the adjustments under paragraph (4)(C)(i) for a previous fiscal year (or estimates that such adjustments for a future fiscal year) did (or are likely to) result in a change in aggregate payments under this subsection during the fiscal year that are a result of changes in the coding or classification of discharges that do not reflect real changes in case mix, the Secretary may adjust the average standardized amounts computed under this paragraph for subsequent fiscal years so as to eliminate the effect of such coding or classification changes. (B) Reducing for value of outlier payments .— The Secretary shall reduce each of the average standardized amounts determined under subparagraph (A) by a factor equal to the proportion of payments under this subsection (as estimated by the Secretary) based on DRG prospective payment amounts which are additional payments described in paragraph (5)(A) (relating to outlier payments). (C) Maintaining budget neutrality for fiscal year 1985 .— (i) For discharges occurring in fiscal year 1985, the Secretary shall adjust each of such average standardized amounts as may be required under subsection (e)(1)(B) for that fiscal year. (ii) Reducing for savings from amendment to indirect teaching adjustment for discharges after september 30, 1986 .— For discharges occurring after September 30, 1986 , the Secretary shall further reduce each of the average standardized amounts (in a proportion which takes into account the differing effects of the standardization effected under paragraph (2)(C)(i)) so as to provide for a reduction in the total of the payments (attributable to this paragraph) made for discharges occurring on or after October 1, 1986 , of an amount equal to the estimated reduction in the payment amounts under paragraph (5)(B) that would have resulted from the enactment of the amendments made by section 9104 of the Medicare and Medicaid Budget Reconciliation Amendments of 1985 and by section 4003(a)(1) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 if the factor described in clause (ii)(II) of paragraph (5)(B) (determined without regard to amendments made by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990) were applied for discharges occurring on or after such date instead of the factor described in clause (ii) of that paragraph. (D) Computing drg-specific rates for hospitals .— For each discharge classified within a diagnosis-related group, the Secretary shall establish for the fiscal year a national DRG prospective payment rate and shall establish, for fiscal years before fiscal year 1997, a regional DRG prospective payment rate for each region which is equal— (i) for fiscal years before fiscal year 2004, for hospitals located in a large urban area in the United States or that region (respectively), to the product of— (I) the average standardized amount (computed under subparagraph (A), reduced under subparagraph (B), and adjusted or reduced under subparagraph (C)) for the fiscal year for hospitals located in such a large urban area in the United States or that region, and (II) the weighting factor (determined under paragraph (4)(B)) for that diagnosis-related group; (ii) for fiscal years before fiscal year 2004, for hospitals located in other areas in the United States or that region (respectively), to the product of— (I) the average standardized amount (computed under subparagraph (A), reduced under subparagraph (B), and adjusted or reduced under subparagraph (C)) for the fiscal year for hospitals located in other areas in the United States or that region, and (II) the weighting factor (determined under paragraph (4)(B)) for that diagnosis-related group; and (iii) for a fiscal year beginning after fiscal year 2003, for hospitals located in all areas, to the product of— (I) the applicable standardized amount (computed under subparagraph (A)), reduced under subparagraph (B), and adjusted or reduced under subparagraph (C) for the fiscal year; and (II) the weighting factor (determined under paragraph (4)(B)) for that diagnosis-related group. (E) Adjusting for different area wage levels.— (i) In general .— Except as provided in clause (ii), (iii), or (iv), the Secretary shall adjust the proportion, (as estimated by the Secretary from time to time) of hospitals’ costs which are attributable to wages and wage-related costs, of the DRG prospective payment rates computed under subparagraph (D) for area differences in hospital wage levels by a factor (established by the Secretary) reflecting the relative hospital wage level in the geographic area of the hospital compared to the national average hospital wage level. Not later than October 1, 1990 , and October 1, 1993 (and at least every 12 months thereafter), the Secretary shall update the factor under the preceding sentence on the basis of a survey conducted by the Secretary (and updated as appropriate) of the wages and wage-related costs of subsection (d) hospitals in the United States. Not less often than once every 3 years the Secretary (through such survey or otherwise) shall measure the earnings and paid hours of employment by occupational category and shall exclude data with respect to the wages and wage-related costs incurred in furnishing skilled nursing facility services. Any adjustments or updates made under this subparagraph for a fiscal year (beginning with fiscal year 1991) shall be made in a manner that assures that the aggregate payments under this subsection in the fiscal year are not greater or less than those that would have been made in the year without such adjustment. The Secretary shall apply the previous sentence for any period as if the amendments made by section 403(a)(1) of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, the amendments made by section 10324(a)(1) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the amendments made by section 9831(a) of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 had not been enacted. (ii) Alternative proportion to be adjusted beginning in fiscal year 2005 .— For discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2004 , the Secretary shall substitute “62 percent” for the proportion described in the first sentence of clause (i), unless the application of this clause would result in lower payments to a hospital than would otherwise be made. (iii) Floor on area wage index for hospitals in frontier states.— (I) In general .— Subject to subclause (IV), for discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2010 , the area wage index applicable under this subparagraph to any hospital which is located in a frontier State (as defined in subclause (II)) may not be less than 1.00. (II) Frontier state defined .— In this clause, the term “frontier State” means a State in which at least 50 percent of the counties in the State are frontier counties. (III) Frontier county defined .— In this clause, the term “frontier county” means a county in which the population per square mile is less than 6. (IV) Limitation .— This clause shall not apply to any hospital located in a State that receives a non-labor related share adjustment under paragraph (5)(H). (iv) Floor on area wage index for hospitals in all-urban states.— (I) In general .— For discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2021 , the area wage index applicable under this subparagraph to any hospital in an all-urban State (as defined in subclause (IV)) may not be less than the minimum area wage index for the fiscal year for hospitals in that State, as established under subclause (II). (II) Minimum area wage index .— For purposes of subclause (I), the Secretary shall establish a minimum area wage index for a fiscal year for hospitals in each all-urban State using the methodology described in section 412.64 (h)(4)(vi) of title 42, Code of Federal Regulations , as in effect for fiscal year 2018. (III) Waiving budget neutrality .— Pursuant to the fifth sentence of clause (i), this clause shall not be applied in a budget neutral manner. (IV) All-urban state defined .— In this clause, the term “all-urban State” means a State in which there are no rural areas (as defined in paragraph (2)(D)) or a State in which there are no hospitals classified as rural under this section.
Source
42 USC § 1395ww(d)(3)
Scoping language
None identified, default scope is assumed to be the parent (part E) of this section.