(a) Criteria. For all hospitals in a rural county to be redesignated to an urban area, the following conditions must be met:

(1) The county in which the hospitals are located—

(i) For fiscal years prior to fiscal year 2006, must be adjacent to the MSA or NECMA to which they seek redesignation.

(ii) For fiscal years beginning with fiscal year 2006, must be adjacent to the MSA to which they seek redesignation.

(2) All hospitals in a rural county must apply for redesignation as a group.

(3) The hospitals must demonstrate that the rural county in which they are located currently meets the criteria for metropolitan character under paragraph (b) of this section and the wage criteria under paragraph (c) of this section.

(4) The hospital may be redesignated only if one of the following conditions is met:

(i) The prereclassified average hourly wage for the area to which they seek redesignation is higher than the prereclassified average hourly wage for the area in which they are currently located.

(ii) For fiscal years prior to fiscal year 2006, the standardized amount for the area to which they seek redesignation is higher than the standardized amount for the area in which they are located.

(b) Metropolitan character. (1) For fiscal years prior to FY 2005, the group of hospitals must demonstrate that the county in which the hospitals are located meets the standards for redesignation to an MSA or an NECMA as an outlying county that were published in the Federal Register on March 30, 1990 (55 FR 12154) using Bureau of the Census data or Bureau of Census estimates made after 1990.

(2) For fiscal years beginning with FY 2005, the group of hospitals must demonstrate that the county in which the hospitals are located meets the standards for redesignation to an MSA as an outlying county using the most recent OMB standards for delineating statistical areas adopted by CMS and the most recent Census Bureau data.

(c) Wage criteria. In applying the following numeric criteria, rounding of numbers to meet the qualifying percentages is not permitted.

(1) Aggregate hourly wage for fiscal years before fiscal year 2010—(i) Aggregate hourly wage. With respect to redesignations effective beginning fiscal year 1999 and before fiscal year 2010, the aggregate average hourly wage for all hospitals in the rural county must be equal to at least 85 percent of the average hourly wage in the adjacent urban area.

(ii) Aggregate hourly wage weighted for occupational mix. For redesignations effective before fiscal year 1999, the aggregate hourly wage for all hospitals in the rural county, weighed for occupational categories, is at least 90 percent of the average hourly wage in the adjacent urban area.

(2) Aggregate hourly wage for fiscal year 2010. With respect to redesignations effective for fiscal year 2010, the aggregate average hourly wage for all hospitals in the rural county must be equal to at least 86 percent of the average hourly wage in the adjacent urban area.

(3) Aggregate hourly wage for fiscal year 2011 and later fiscal years. With respect to redesignations effective for fiscal year 2011 and later fiscal years, the aggregate average hourly wage for all hospitals in the rural county must be equal to at least 85 percent of the average hourly wage in the adjacent urban area.

(d) Appropriate data—(1) Metropolitan character. (i) To meet the criteria in paragraph (b) of this section, the hospitals may submit data, estimates, or projections, made by the Bureau of the Census concerning population density or growth, or changes in designation of urban areas.

(ii) The MGCRB only considers data developed by the Bureau of the Census.

(2) Appropriate wage data. The hospitals must submit appropriate data as follows:

(i) For redesignations effective through FY 2002:

(A) For hospital-specific data, the hospitals must provide data from the CMS wage survey used to construct the wage index in effect for prospective payment purposes during the fiscal year prior to the fiscal year for which the hospitals request reclassification.

(B) For data for other hospitals, the hospitals must provide the following:

(1) The average hourly wage in the adjacent area, which is taken from the CMS hospital wage survey used to construct the wage index in effect for prospective payment purposes during the fiscal year prior to the fiscal year for which the hospitals request reclassification.

(2) Occupational-mix data to demonstrate the average occupational mix for each employment category in the adjacent area. Occupational-mix data can be obtained from surveys conducted by the American Hospital Association.

(ii) For redesignations effective beginning FY 2003:

(A) For hospital-specific data, the hospital must provide a weighted 3-year average of its average hourly wages using data from the CMS hospital wage survey used to construct the wage index in effect for prospective payment purposes.

(B) For data for other hospitals, the hospital must provide a weighted 3-year average of the average hourly wage in the area in which the hospital is located and a weighted 3-year average of the average hourly wage in the area to which the hospital seeks reclassification. The wage data are taken from the CMS hospital wage survey used to construct the wage index in effect for prospective payment purposes.

(iii) For redesignations effective beginning FY 2009, the wage data of an individual campus of a multicampus hospital will be determined by allocating, on the basis of full-time equivalent staff or discharges, the wage data of the entire multicampus hospital between or among the individual campuses of the multicampus hospital. The provision of this paragraph (d)(2)(iii) applies only in the case where an individual campus is located in a geographic area different from the area associated with the provider number of the entire multicampus hospital.