Supporting Access to Rural Community Hospitals Act of 2025
Sponsored By: Senator Deb Fischer
Introduced
Summary
Temporarily lets rural community hospitals become Critical Access Hospitals to access Medicare’s cost-based payments. This bill would allow hospitals that are participating in the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program to be designated as Critical Access Hospitals for a one-year window beginning six months after enactment even if they do not meet the usual distance rules. The change relies on the demo program's definitions and removes the distance barrier so these small rural hospitals can qualify for CAH payment treatment during that period.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 1 costs, 0 mixed.
Temporary CAH path for rural hospitals
If enacted, this would let certain rural community hospitals be treated as eligible for critical access hospital (CAH) designation for a short time. The rule would apply only to hospitals that were in the Section 410A demonstration on the date of enactment and meet the Section 410A rural hospital definition. The temporary window would cover CAH designations during the one-year period beginning six months after enactment. This could help qualifying rural hospitals get CAH status during that year.
Narrower definition for rural hospitals
If enacted, this would change the Section 410A definition to say the subject "is not a critical access hospital" as defined in the Social Security Act. That would let Medicare reviewers exclude facilities that are already CAHs from the Section 410A rural hospital definition. Excluding those hospitals could reduce which facilities qualify for demonstration-related status or benefits under Section 410A.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Deb Fischer
NE • R
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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