Craig Thomas Rural Hospital and Provider Equity Act of 2014

Craig Thomas Rural Hospital and Provider Equity Act of 2014 - Expresses the sense of the Senate that residents of rural and frontier communities should have access to affordable, quality health care.

Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act with respect to:

the Medicare disproportionate share hospital (DSH) adjustment for rural hospitals;

extension of the temporary increase in payments to certain rural hospitals (Medicare hold harmless provision);

the Medicare inpatient hospital payment adjustment for low-volume hospitals;

Medicare wage index reclassifications for certain hospitals;

Medicare reasonable costs payments for certain clinical diagnostic laboratory tests furnished to hospitals in certain rural areas;

elimination of the isolation test for the cost-based ambulance reimbursement for critical access hospitals;

the capital infrastructure revolving loan program;

the Medicare incentive payment program for physician scarcity areas;

extension of the 1.00 floor on Medicare work geographic adjustment to payments for physician services;

permission for physician assistants to order post-hospital extended care services or hospice care;

Medicare home health care planning;

rural health clinics;

a temporary Medicare payment increase for home health services furnished in a rural area;

extension of increased Medicare payments for rural ground ambulance services; and

coverage of marriage and family therapist services and mental health counselor services under Medicare part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance).

Amends the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 to provide for the extension of the payment for the technical component of certain physician pathology services under Medicare.

Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to encourage and facilitate the adoption of provisions allowing for multistate practitioner practice across state lines.

Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to extend Medicare part A (Hospital Insurance) coverage and payment, on a reasonable cost basis, to anesthesia services furnished by a physician anesthesiologist in certain rural hospitals in the same manner as payment is made for anesthesia services furnished by a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) in such hospitals.

The summary continues for 6 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov

Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on May 20, 2014. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.

Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.