Dec. 20—WASHINGTON, D.C. — Georgia’s U.S. Senators, the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, both Democrats, pressured Senate leadership to allow Georgia’s 51 Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospitals to maintain their status for two years as the state’s health care system stabilizes.

Disproportionate Share Hospitals serve larger numbers of low-income patients and receive support through federal programs to help cover the cost of caring for uninsured patients. Twenty-three of these 51 hospitals are at risk of losing this status, and consequently at risk of closing, because of Medicaid redeterminations and the backlog with Social Security Insurance disability claims.

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