HYDE-SMITH, GRASSLEY CONTINUE PUSH TO HELP RURAL HOSPITALS THROUGH DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM

HYDE-SMITH, GRASSLEY CONTINUE PUSH TO HELP RURAL HOSPITALS THROUGH DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM

Senators Issue Letter Pressing Full Use of Successful CMS Program for Stressed Rural Hospitals

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) continue to push the Biden administration to fully utilize a federal program that has been described as a lifeline for some struggling rural hospitals.

In a joint letter, Hyde-Smith and Grassley this week pressed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on its refusal to use the budget-neutral Rural Community Hospital Demonstration (RCHD), despite the program's proven efficacy for participating rural hospitals and qualifying facilities' interest in joining.

"Current law allows up to 30 hospitals to participate in the RCHD, but for the past several years CMS has underutilized the program leaving as many as eight spots vacant. While there is interest from additional rural hospitals to participate, your agency has not taken action to add eligible hospitals. In fact, CMS told us that there would be too much interest among rural hospitals," the Senators wrote CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.

"The most recent performance data suggests that new RCHD hospitals significantly improved their Medicare margins, although those gains were not large enough to impact their total profit margins. This signals that the RCHD program offers a shot in the arm for financially-challenged rural hospitals to keep their doors open and provide health care services," the Senators wrote.

"The RCHD program is supporting rural hospitals and it should be fully utilized. If CMS has the tools to help one rural hospital, then you should be doing something about it," they concluded.

The letter also cited commitments made by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to work with the lawmakers to enroll more at-risk rural hospitals in RCHD, including at an April appropriations subcommittee hearing.

Congress established the RCHD program in 2003 and reauthorized it three times to sustain a program that uses alternative payment models for rural hospitals facing financial constraints with the Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System. CMS last solicited program applications in 2017.

The Anderson Regional Medical Center in Meridian, Highland Community Hospital in Picayune, Marion General Hospital in Columbia are RCHD facilities where innovation models are being tested.

Click here to read a copy of the Senators' letter to CMS.

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