“Nineteen rural state hospital associations have signed onto a letter urging President Obama to nix the healthcare reform law’s special deal for Massachusetts hospitals in his 2013 budget proposal next month. The hospital groups say a provision in the law shifts $367 million annually in Medicare funding from 49 states to the Democratic-led commonwealth. The provision’s aim was simply to increase Medicare payments for a single, 15-bed hospital in Nantucket but ended up raising payment rates for the state’s 60 urban hospitals by 8 percent.”