Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.,met with leaders from Altru Hospital on Saturday in Grand Forks to discuss his efforts to increase federal support for North Dakota health care providers and develop strategies to deal with Medicare payment concerns.
They discussed payment inequities in Medicare and are working for a frontier state designation for North Dakota, which would allow North Dakota's hospitals to receive higher Medicare payments. The designation acknowledges that urban hospitals in the state get less Medicare reimbursement than other urban hospitals across the country.
"Forty-plus percent of Altru's patients are Medicare patients," Dorgan said. "And they are receiving much less Medicare reimbursement."
Dorgan will meet with senators from other frontier states in January to discuss related issues.
Sen. Kent Conrad met with executives from several of North Dakotas, leading hospitals last week to discuss Medicare reimbursement. Conrad has met with leaders from Trinity Hospital, Minot; Medcenter One, Bismarck; MeritCare, Fargo; Altru, Grand Forks and the leaders of the North Dakota Hospital Association.
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Sens. Conrad and Dorgan, and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., will meet Monday with Kerry Weems, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to discuss the frontier state designation.
