# 119-s-4233: Save Struggling Hospitals Act

119-s-4233, Save Struggling Hospitals Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Warner, Mark R. [D-VA] (D-VA); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-07-18).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4233
- As of: 2026-07-18
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-4233
- Congress: 119
- Title: Save Struggling Hospitals Act
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2026-03-26
- Sponsor: Sen. Warner, Mark R. [D-VA] (D-VA)
- Cosponsors: 6
- Policy area: Health
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-07-18

## Summary

**Raise Medicare wage indexes for low-wage hospitals.** This bill would add a new Medicare area wage index adjustment that increases the index for hospitals below the 25th percentile by half the gap to the 25th percentile, applied to discharges on or after October 1, 2019. - Hospitals with an area wage index below the 25th percentile would get a boost equal to one-half of the difference between their index and the 25th percentile, increasing Medicare wage-related payments for those discharges. - The change must be budget neutral and includes limits on offsets. Adjustments for budget neutrality may not cut a hospital's area wage index if that hospital's index (measured without this rule) is below the 75th percentile, and such hospitals cannot receive less than 95 percent of their prior-year index.

## Cosponsors (6)

- Sen. Blackburn, Marsha [R-TN] (R-TN), 2026-03-26T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Hyde-Smith, Cindy [R-MS] (R-MS), 2026-03-26T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Tuberville, Tommy [R-AL] (R-AL), 2026-03-26T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Hagerty, Bill [R-TN] (R-TN), 2026-04-22T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Boozman, John [R-AR] (R-AR), 2026-05-11T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Wicker, Roger F. [R-MS] (R-MS), 2026-07-16T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Higher Medicare pay for low-wage hospitals: benefit, medium. This bill would add a Medicare area wage index boost for some hospitals starting for discharges on or after October 1, 2019. Hospitals whose baseline area wage index is below the 25th percentile would get an increase equal to one-half of the gap to the 25th percentile for that fiscal year. The chan…

## Related bills

- 119-s-2296: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026
- 119-s-4784: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027
- 119-s-5526: Agricultural Act of 2026
- 119-s-1748: Kids Online Safety Act
- 119-s-522: Credit Union Board Modernization Act
- 119-sres-913: A resolution relating to the death of the Honorable Nancy Kassebaum, former United States Senator for the State of Kansas.

## Sources
- [119-s-4233 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/4233)

## Related
- [119-s-2296: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-2296)
- [119-s-4784: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4784)
- [119-s-5526: Agricultural Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5526)
- [119-s-1748: Kids Online Safety Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1748)
- [119-s-522: Credit Union Board Modernization Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-522)
- [119-sres-913: A resolution relating to the death of the Honorable Nancy Kassebaum, former Uni…](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-sres-913)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4233 (as of 2026-07-18).