Bill Details
View committees (1)
AI Summary This summary was generated by AI from the bill text. AI can get information wrong.
This bill would make it easier for certain rural hospitals to become critical access hospitals, which can help them keep serving their communities. Right now, some hospitals must meet distance rules before they can get that special status. The bill would temporarily waive those distance rules for a specific group of rural community hospitals, giving them a new path to qualify and potentially improve access to care in rural areas.
- It applies only to rural community hospitals that were already part of a special Medicare demonstration program when the bill is enacted.
- The waiver would be available for designations made during a 1-year period that starts 6 months after the bill becomes law.
- The bill changes Medicare rules so these hospitals can be considered for critical access hospital status even if they do not meet the usual distance requirement.
- It also makes a related technical change to existing law so the hospital definition lines up with the new rule.
Official Summaries
Supporting Access to Rural Community Hospitals Act of 2025
This bill temporarily allows additional hospitals to qualify as critical access hospitals (CAHs) that receive special payment under Medicare.
Currently, in order to qualify as a CAH under Medicare, a hospital must either (1) be located more than 35 miles (or 15 miles in mountainous regions or areas with only secondary roads) from another hospital, or (2) have been certified prior to January 1, 2006, by the state as a necessary provider of services in the area. Hospitals also must meet certain size and service requirements, including having no more than 25 acute care inpatient beds.
The bill allows, for one year, hospitals that are participating in the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program to also qualify as CAHs. (The program tests the feasibility of cost-based reimbursement for small rural hospitals that are too large to qualify as CAHs.)
Current Full Text
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 521 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 521
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to waive certain
distance requirements for certain hospitals electing to be designated
as critical access hospitals.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 11, 2025
Mrs. Fischer introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Finance
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to waive certain
distance requirements for certain hospitals electing to be designated
as critical access hospitals.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Supporting Access to Rural Community
Hospitals Act of 2025''.
SEC. 2. WAIVING CERTAIN DISTANCE REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTAIN HOSPITALS
ELECTING TO BE DESIGNATED AS CRITICAL ACCESS HOSPITALS.
(a) In General.--Section 1820(c)(2)(B)(i) of the Social Security
Act (42 U.S.C. 1395i-4(c)(2)(B)(i)) is amended--
(1) in subclause (I), by striking ``or'' at the end;
(2) in subclause (II), by adding ``or'' at the end; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new subclause:
``(III) with respect to
designations occurring during the 1-
year period beginning on the date that
is 6 months after the date of the
enactment of this subclause, is a rural
community hospital (as defined in
subsection (f) of section 410A of the
Medicare Prescription Drug,
Improvement, and Modernization Act of
2003) that was participating in the
demonstration program established under
such section as of such date of
enactment.''.
(b) Conforming Amendments.--Section 410A(f)(1)(A)(iv) of the
Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003
(42 U.S.C. 1395ww note) is amended by striking ``is not'' and all that
follows through the period and inserting ``is not a critical access
hospital (as defined in section 1861(mm)(1) of the Social Security
Act).''.
<all>