Tucked away in last week's Congressional Fiscal Cliff compromise, is a provision that will provide several million dollars to two Vermont hospitals and consumers could benefit directly from this development. In 1990, Congress created a program to help small rural hospitals, that have a high percentage of Medicare patients, cope with fluctuating Medicare reimbursement rates. But funding for the program expired on September 30th and there was a lot of doubt about whether Congress would reauthorize it. Two Vermont hospitals will benefit from the program. One of them is Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington.
