Rural issues
Critical access hospitals that did not achieve meaningful use in the Medicare Electronic Health Record Incentive Program for the 2016 reporting period or receive a hardship exception will see their Medicare payments reduced to 100% of their reasonable costs in fiscal year 2018.
Rural hospitals provide essential health care services to some 57 million people. Because of their size, modest assets and financial reserves, and higher percentages of Medicare patients, small and rural hospitals disproportionately rely on government payments.
National hospital organizations, including the AHA, today urged Congress to include in the short-term continuing resolution under consideration this week a two-year delay in Medicaid disproportionate share hospital cuts.
Joan Coffman, president and CEO of Hospital Sisters Health System St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur, IL, will lead the AHA's Section for Small or Rural Hospitals in 2018. Coffman will chair the section's 19-person governing council, which represents small or rural hospitals in the AHA's policy process…
Method I Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs)
Under Method I, the CAH bills Medicare for facility services and clinicians’ professional services separately under the physician fee schedule (PFS). In this case, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will not make MIPS adjustments to a…
It’s a new year but Congress has some old business to attend to—including many critical hospital and health system priorities. Both Houses of Congress will be back in session next week. Front and center is legislation to keep the government open past January 19.
The Federal Communications Commission is accepting comments through Feb. 2 on its proposal to permanently increase the $400 million annual funding cap for the Rural Health Care Program, as advocated by the AHA.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote this evening on a continuing resolution funding the federal government through Jan. 19. The current CR expires tomorrow.
The Federal Communications Commission this week identified unserved rural areas eligible for up to $2 billion in broadband support over the next decade. The agency is preparing to distribute the funds to companies that successfully compete in an auction to deploy robust broadband to these areas at…