Washington, July 28 -- Congressman August Pfluger issued the following press release:
Today, Congressman August Pfluger (TX-11) introduced the Reimbursing Emergency Services for Critical Urgent Encounters (RESCUE) Act to amend the outdated Medicare payment structure that is straining ambulance services across rural Texas and the country.
Medicare's ambulance fee schedule has not been updated since 2002, and current rates are still based on cost data collected from 1998. The RESCUE Act would require the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to update the ambulance fee schedule every three years based on current, actual cost data, replacing a system still anchored to decades-old numbers. Meanwhile, the fuel, equipment, staffing, ...