States could help struggling rural hospitals become Critical Access Hospitals.
This bill would let states temporarily waive a distance rule for certain financially struggling rural hospitals. This means more rural hospitals could get a special Medicare designation called Critical Access Hospital. This designation helps them stay open and offer important services like obstetrics or mental health care for up to nine years.
Today, rural hospitals generally must be more than 35 miles from another hospital to be designated as a Critical Access Hospital under Medicare. This bill would allow states to temporarily waive this 35-mile rule for up to 120 financially struggling rural hospitals nationwide, with a limit of 5 per state. This change would help them gain this designation and improve their financial health for up to nine years.
S 502 · 119th Congress · February 10, 2025 · AI Summary by gemini-2.5-flash · 9/10
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Amounts reflect total quarterly lobbying spend reported to the Senate, not bill-specific spending. Source: Senate LDA filings.