Rural Hospital Relief: Easier Medicare Funding to Prevent Closures.
This law aims to prevent the closure of financially struggling rural hospitals by temporarily allowing states to waive the standard distance rule for Critical Access Hospital (CAH) designation. This designation provides better Medicare funding, ensuring rural residents maintain local access to essential healthcare. Hospitals receiving this relief must commit to offering new, high-demand services like obstetrics or mental health care.
Key points
Allows financially distressed rural hospitals to qualify for better Medicare funding (CAH status) by temporarily waiving the 35-mile distance rule.
Hospitals must commit to opening or expanding high-demand services, such as maternity or behavioral health care, to receive this designation.
The program is limited to 120 facilities nationwide and expires after 9 years, after which hospitals must transition to a new payment model.
Introduced
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