WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) today applauded Senate passage of a bill that will help 14 rural health clinics across Virginia continue to serve patients during COVID-19.  

“Over the last year, rural clinics have been on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19. But as a result of the pandemic, rural health care providers are facing significant financial distress,” said Sen. Warner. “Today, the Senate passed legislation to fix a mistake that was causing further financial uncertainty for many of these clinics, which will allow them to continue serving rural communities across America both during and after COVID-19.” 

The Senate today amended and passed H.R. 1868, which makes several changes to Medicare and Medicaid to address the ongoing impact of COVID-19. The bill included a provision from Sen. Warner’s bipartisan legislation, the Strengthening Rural Health Clinics Act of 2021, making a technical fix to protect rural health clinics that were built between December 2019 and December 2020 from a sudden and unexpected Medicare payment rate change that was erroneously brought on by the December 2020 COVID-19 relief bill. Once signed into law, the following clinics in Virginia will be protected from the accidental rate cuts:

The emergency COVID-19 relief bill that was signed into law in December included a provision to reform Medicare payment rates for future rural health clinics. While this provision intended to “grandfather” existing rural health clinics at their current payment rates in order to ensure their financial stability, a technical error ultimately excluded clinics that were established after December 2019. In order to protect these clinics from the chaos associated with a sudden payment rate change, Sen. Warner along with Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) earlier this week introduced the Strengthening Rural Health Clinics Act of 2021 to amend the law to grandfather in at the earlier payment rate all clinics that were built before December 2020, including the 14 clinics listed above. Sen. Warner’s bipartisan legislation would also grandfather in an additional 13 clinics in rural Virginia that were in “mid-build” or had already signed a lease or building agreement prior to December 31, 2020. A full list of those clinics is available here. 

###