CHEYENNE - Sen. John Barrasso says he has ideas for lowering health care costs in rural areas and helping make sure rural clinics remain viable.

In an interview this week with The Associated Press, Barrasso said he's taking a bipartisan approach to health care by co-sponsoring with Democrats two pieces of rural health care legislation.

Barrasso said he'd like the measures to be part of any health care reform that gets passed this year.

"People are happy with the quality of care that they're getting in Wyoming, but we need to make sure it's available in our communities," he said.

One bill would increase the average per-patient Medicare payment to rural health clinics by 20 percent, from an average of $76 to $92.

The bill also would set up a demonstration program to see if doctors in five states would be more willing to practice in rural areas if clinics subsidized part of their medical liability insurance premiums. Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon, introduced the bill last week with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

The other bill would boost Medicare payments to rural health care providers so they can provide critical services without incurring shortfalls. The legislation was co-sponsored by Barrasso's predecessor, the late Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., and is called the Craig Thomas Rural Hospital and Providers Equity Act.

Right now, Barrasso said, Medicare reimburses rural hospitals at a rate lower than urban ones. That's despite how rural hospitals often have difficulty covering the costs of essential medical equipment because they treat fewer patients and therefore have fewer billing opportunities to pay for the equipment, he said.

"Our hospitals around the state of Wyoming, they have to be fully prepared for a number of different emergencies, with high-tech and expensive equipment they don't use that often," Barrasso said. "If you go to a big city, they have the same equipment, but they use it more frequently."

Medicare also pays rural ambulance services below the cost of transporting Medicare patients, he said.

"And Medicare admits it. This isn't like a secret," he said.

Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, also are sponsoring the bill.