Rural hospitals in America are under the gun – some of them are closing.
We have about 90 rural hospitals in the state of Iowa.
For a change, I have some good news for rural hospitals.
For years, I’ve been pressing the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to open applications for the 10 unfilled spots in a program that we call Rural Community Hospital Demonstration.
This program allows Medicare to test innovative payment models to support rural hospitals.
It boosts the financial viability for rural hospitals that are too large to be Critical Access Hospitals and yet too small to benefit from Medicare’s hospital inpatient prospective payment system.
Currently, the program is helping four rural hospitals in Iowa in Ft. Dodge, Grinnell, Newton and Spirit Lake.
Now for years, I’ve heard excuses from the executive branch for why they wouldn’t fill the open spots with interested rural hospitals.
So, earlier this year, I asked CMS Administrator Dr. Oz to fill the open spots in this rural hospital program.
Finally, on May the 14th, Dr. Oz announced 10 new hospitals will be added to the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program.
Also, hospitals who applied but were not selected will be put on a waitlist if other spots open up.
Now until this time, CMS has been underutilizing this program and ignoring the interest of rural hospitals.
I appreciate the Trump administration taking action to help rural America this way through helping a few more rural hospitals.
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