Rural Health Sustainability Act of 2025
The Rural Health Sustainability Act of 2025 would change how a hospital is designated as a rural emergency hospital under Medicare. Specifically, it fixes the reference date for determining "rural" status at January 1, 2014 (instead of the date of enactment) and adds a new criterion: a hospital that was designated as rural by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Office of Rural Health Policy would qualify. The existing criteria would be adjusted to accommodate this new option, expanding the ways a facility can meet the rural designation. The likely effect is to broaden eligibility for rural emergency hospital status, potentially allowing more rural facilities to participate in the related Medicare designation and its associated financial and care-delivery implications, thereby supporting rural health sustainability.
Key Points
- 1Replaces the date used to determine rural status with January 1, 2014, for the designation criteria.
- 2Removes a connector at the end of subparagraph (A) to enable a revised flow of criteria.
- 3Alters subparagraph (B) by changing the end punctuation to allow additional criteria to be added.
- 4Adds a new subparagraph (C): a hospital that was designated as rural by the HRSA Office of Rural Health Policy would meet the rural designation criterion.
- 5Overall effect: expands the ways a hospital can qualify as a rural emergency hospital, potentially increasing the number of facilities able to participate in this designation under the Medicare program.