Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman is renewing his effort to ensure New Mexico health care centers are fairly and adequately reimbursed for treating Medicare patients. 

Currently, community health centers are subjected to a cap on their Medicare reimbursements regardless of the services they actually offer to Medicare beneficiaries.  As a result, health care centers – which are often the most important safety-net providers in rural communities – end up offering uncompensated care. 

Bingaman has reintroduced his Medicare Access to Community Health Center (MATCH) Act, which would lift the cap and ensure that health centers are properly reimbursed.  If enacted, the measure would send $1 million annually to community health centers across New Mexico.

“New Mexico’s community health centers provide high quality, comprehensive care to some of our state’s most vulnerable people,” Bingaman said.  “We need to make sure they are adequately compensated.   By fixing an inequity in current law, this bill would make it possible to expand community health centers’ efforts to provide care, which is so critical in New Mexico and throughout the nation.”

The MATCH Act is cosponsored by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Bernard Sanders (I-VT).  It also was introduced in the House of Representatives by John Lewis (D-GA) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO).