Increases by 20 percent the Medicare payment for home health care furnished in a frontier area during 2003 through 2006.
Permits hospitals to increase temporarily above 15 the number of acute care inpatient beds, provided the hospital will maintain an annual average daily inpatient census of not more than 12 beds.
Increases by 15 percent the Medicare payment for hospice care furnished in a frontier area during 2003 through 2006.
Prohibits the Secretary of Human Services and a fiscal intermediary from taking action to deny payment for hospice care for an individual on the basis that the individual is not terminally ill if the individual dies within six months of the date admitted into the hospice program. Directs the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to evaluate the standards used by fiscal intermediaries in denying a physician certification that an individual is terminally ill.