NORWICH – Rural hospitals like UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital in Norwich are getting the help they need to support medicare programs for an aging population, thanks to two newly-reinstated federal programs announced by New York State Senator Charles Schumer on Wednesday at UHS CMH.

As part of the year-end “fiscal cliff” deal reached by Congress at the end of 2012, Schumer fought to include the Medicare-Dependent Hospital Program (MDH), which offers support to only seven hospitals in New York that treat a high number of medicare patients. The final agreement also includes the Low Volume Hospital Program (LVH) that impacts 18 hospitals in the state that provide medicare support for rural communities, but don’t see a high number of patients.

To cut funding to rural hospitals simply because they don’t see the number of patients of more urban areas is something Schumer said is “unfair.”

“The people in your community deserve the same care as everyone else,” Schumer told a crowd of hospital officials and employees gathered in the lobby of UHS CMH Wednesday. “It’s unfair to tell people in rural areas that they don’t receive the same quality of healthcare as people in urban areas.”