WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) leadership on rural health care was praised by a bipartisan group of senators and witnesses yesterday at a Senate Finance Subcommittee
hearing on improving health care access in rural communities. The hearing repeatedly referenced the new, voluntary rural emergency hospital (REH) program
established under Grassley’s tenure as Finance Committee chairman. The Grassley-led REH program offers a financial lifeline to struggling rural hospitals that can no longer support inpatient services.
“We’re proud of Senator Grassley’s leadership. In January of this year, the first new Medicare rural provider designation went into effect since the Critical Access Hospital designation was created all the way back in 1997… It’s great to see Senator Grassley and others working to implement new and creative ways to serve the changing needs of our rural hospitals today.” – Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.)
“I’m proud to reintroduce [the
Rural Hospital Support Act] with Senator Grassley to make…payment adjustments [for Medicare-dependent hospital and low-volume hospitals] permanent in order to provide certainty surrounding the funding for these hospitals.”
– Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.)
“Senator Grassley’s dedication…manifested in the Rural Emergency Hospital provision in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. I applaud Congress for acting innovatively to address rural health needs.” – Dr. Mark Holmes, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Professor
“We’d like to thank Senator Grassley and the rest of the Senate for the great work they did on [the Rural Emergency Hospital designation]. One of the advantages of that program is you don’t have to have an inpatient part of your hospital. You can move it to an outpatient and still be able to qualify for funding that supports the hospital within that.” – Dr. David Herman, CEO of Essentia Health, based in Duluth, Minnesota
Following the hearing, Grassley continued to press for further action on rural health care needs. In
a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator, he urged the agency to fully utilize the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration (RCHD) program, which extends the financial viability of small rural hospitals. Although CMS has the capacity to support five additional rural hospitals through RCHD, it is underutilizing the program and missing a cost-effective opportunity to support rural hospital services.
The letter follows
an exchange earlier this year in which Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra committed to Grassley that HHS would “do more” to support rural hospitals in need. The full text of the letter can be found
HERE.
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