House Republican questions why NewYork-Presbyterian is in rural category

He’s calling it a certified country crock!A top House Republican railed over NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital being classified as a “rural” medical center despite sitting near skyscrapers in the middle of Manhattan’s urban jungle.House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Missouri) claimed Sunday that the folksy tag for the hospital showed why America’s “titanic” health care spending was out of control and ripe for abuse.“This past week I actually brought in some of the largest hospital CEOs to analyze the skyrocketing costs that all Americans are facing,” Smith said Sunday on 77 WABC’s “Cats Roundtable.”He and other Congress members grilled NY-Presbyterian CEO Brian Donley about the “rural” category, with Smith claiming it was done to get “special benefits afforded to hospitals with the tag.”“I asked him how his flagship hospital in Manhattan off of 68th St.

can be designated as rural.I haven’t seen very many farms in Manhattan,” Smith told radio host John Catsimatidis.

“There’s a loophole in the system that allows him to do it.”NewYork-Presbyterian isn’t the only non-rural hospital treated as one — Smith said 425 different hospitals have received rural funding over the past six years.“These are things we’ve got to clean up,” Smith said.The Ways and Means Committee released a statement that said, “This is a prime example of why rural Americans face challenges accessing care and how benefits allocated for rural hospitals end up in exams rooms in big cities.”Donley defended Presbyterian’s rural designation because it receives 8,000 patient referrals from rural hospitals every year.“We’re proud to take care of those patients,” Donley said during his testimony.The hospital said in a statement to The Post that “ensuring access to high‑quality health care for rural communities is critically important.” “We qualify as a Rural Referral Center under the Centers for Medicare & Medica...