Rural Emergency Hospital Designation Improvement Act

Key Points

• The bill widens eligibility for the Rural Emergency Hospital program by letting any facility that operated as a small rural hospital at any point since 2015 apply, instead of only those operating on one specific past date, helping more communities keep a local hospital.
• Rural Emergency Hospitals will be allowed to add distinct inpatient units for behavioral health, physical rehabilitation, and obstetric or labor and delivery care, bringing services back to areas that have lost them.
• Starting January 1, 2027, Medicare will pay these hospitals 5 percent more for diagnostic lab tests to help cover their higher operating costs.
• The bill lets Rural Emergency Hospitals use their beds for extended nursing care similar to a skilled nursing facility, paid at reasonable cost, giving them financial flexibility and local recovery care for patients.
• HHS must automatically treat these hospitals as health professional shortage areas, making it easier for them to recruit doctors and nurses through federal loan repayment and scholarship programs.
• Medicaid programs must now explicitly cover Rural Emergency Hospital services, extending this coverage to lower-income rural patients as well.