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Supporting Access to Rural Community Hospitals Act of 2025
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to waive certain distance requirements for certain hospitals electing to be designated as critical access hospitals.
Summary
This bill amends Medicare rules to allow certain rural community hospitals to be designated as Critical Access Hospitals without meeting the normal distance requirements. Specifically, it allows rural community hospitals that were participating in a Medicare demonstration program to become Critical Access Hospitals during a one-year period beginning six months after the bill's enactment. Critical Access Hospitals receive special Medicare reimbursement rates and other benefits designed to support rural healthcare providers. The bill includes conforming amendments to align the demonstration program requirements with this new pathway to Critical Access Hospital status.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Fischer, Deb [R-NE] (R-NE)
Actions (2)
- Feb 11, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. · senate
- Feb 11, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 11, 2025
Mrs. Fischer introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to waive certain distance requirements for certain hospitals electing to be designated as critical access hospitals.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Supporting Access to Rural Community Hospitals Act of 2025”.
SEC. 2. WAIVING CERTAIN DISTANCE REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTAIN HOSPITALS ELECTING TO BE DESIGNATED AS CRITICAL ACCESS HOSPITALS.
(a) In General.—Section 1820(c)(2)(B)(i) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395i-4(c)(2)(B)(i)) is amended—
(1) in subclause (I), by striking “or” at the end;
(2) in subclause (II), by adding “or” at the end; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new subclause:
“(III) with respect to designations occurring during the 1- year period beginning on the date that is 6 months after the date of the enactment of this subclause, is a rural community hospital (as defined in subsection (f) of section 410A of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003) that was participating in the demonstration program established under such section as of such date of enactment.”.
(b) Conforming Amendments.—Section 410A(f)(1)(A)(iv) of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (42 U.S.C. 1395ww note) is amended by striking “is not” and all that follows through the period and inserting “is not a critical access hospital (as defined in section 1861(mm)(1) of the Social Security Act).”. <all>
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