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.)