NRHA members bring message to Capitol Hill: Keep rural hospital doors open
More than 50 rural health administrators and advocates from across the country will gather on Capitol Hill tomorrow (July 31) to protect rural hospitals and patients. Funding for rural hospitals is under attack by Congress and the Administration. Cuts to critical access hospitals are again proposed, and hundreds of millions of dollars to rural PPS hospitals will be lost if Congress does not act soon. If these threats become a reality, rural hospital services will be forced to cut services, and rural hospitals may close. The National Rural Health Association's March for Rural Hospitals event will detail how to protect rural hospitals from proposed cuts, and attendees who work in rural America will take their personal and powerful message directly to members of Congress. They’ll explain why it’s vital to preserve two rural PPS hospital payments that will expire on Oct. 1 if Congress doesn't act: the Medicare-dependent hospital (MDH) payment and the low-volume hospital adjustment. MDHs are small rural facilities that serve a high percentage of Medicare patients. Expiration will mean more than 200 MDHs will lose millions of dollars, forcing many facilities to reduce services, or worse, close their doors, resulting in a devastating impact on rural patients across the nation. More than 600 rural hospitals receive the low-volume adjustment, meaning a loss of $1 million in Medicare reimbursement for many rural hospitals. Join the fight, and click here for more information on how to protect rural hospitals and patients from these proposed cuts.