WASHINGTON, DC-- During a hearing today of the Senate Aging Committee, of which Senator Susan Collins is a Member, the Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Scott McClellan, committed to work with the Senator to preserve critical medical education programs that provide trained primary care physicians to rural communities in Maine. At issue are millions of dollars of payments that Maine’s teaching hospitals have been asked to repay the government. Senator Collins explained that these hospitals should not have to make the payments and doing so would essentially end these critical medical educational programs. At Senator Collins’ insistence, McClellan agreed to suspend the repayments while the issue is being addressed.
The programs in Maine that would be immediately affected are the programs at the University of New England/Southern Maine Medical Center and the Maine-Dartmouth Family Practice Residency Program at Maine General Medical Center.
“If these hospitals are forced to repay the disputed reimbursements, these critical programs will have to close their doors and as a result, seniors and disabled individuals in Maine will not be able to get the care they need. This is the financial reality of this situation,” said Senator Collins to Administrator McClellan.
Senator Collins has been working on this issue for several years and has met previously with McClellan to encourage him to review CMSs policy in this regard.
Responding to Senator Collins, McClellan announced that the agency is going to suspend seeking repayments from the two Maine programs while the issue is further examined. He thanked Senator Collins for her input to CMS on this issue and agreed to speak to her again in the near future.
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