Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, last week introduced a Senate companion to the Rural Hospital Support Act (H.R. 1887/S. 4009), AHA-supported legislation that would make permanent the Medicare-Dependent Hospital program and enhanced low-volume Medicare adjustment for small rural prospective payment system hospitals. The bill also would allow sole community hospitals and MDHs to choose an additional base year from which payments can be calculated. 

The bill will help keep the doors open at rural hospitals and allow them to continue serving their local communities during an unprecedented time of sustained financial pressure and historic changes in care delivery, AHA wrote

Reps. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., and Terri Sewell, D-Ala., introduced the House bill last year.

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The Health Resources and Services Administration will award grants to rural hospitals and other providers from two areas of its Rural Communities Opioid…
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has begun collecting private payor rate data through its Fee-for-Service Data Collection System Clinical Lab…
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Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., April 30 introduced the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Reauthorization Act, legislation that…
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Applications are now open for the AHA Rural Hospital Excellence in Innovation Award, which recognizes and shares the accomplishments of rural hospitals that…
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Food and Drug Administration April 23 announced a new pathway to expedite access to certain FDA-…
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In think‑tank reports, like the one released this week by Paragon Health Institute, hospitals are often reduced to abstractions — payment rates, charts,…