Rural Health Care Access Act of 2025

Rural Health Care Access Act of 2025

This bill eliminates certain criteria that hospitals must meet in order to qualify as critical access hospitals that receive special payment under Medicare.

Specifically, the bill eliminates the requirement that a hospital must either (1) be located more than 35 miles (15 miles in mountainous regions or areas with only secondary roads) from another hospital, or (2) have been certified prior to January 1, 2006, by the state as a necessary provider of services in the area.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 771 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 771

  To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to permit States to 
 designate without any mileage limitations facilities that are located 
              in rural areas as critical access hospitals.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 28, 2025

Mr. Green of Tennessee (for himself, Mr. Thompson of Pennsylvania, Mr. 
Jackson of Texas, and Mrs. Miller of Illinois) introduced the following 
      bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to permit States to 
 designate without any mileage limitations facilities that are located 
              in rural areas 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 ``Rural Health Care Access Act of 
2025''.

SEC. 2. MEDICARE RURAL HOSPITAL FLEXIBILITY PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--Section 1820 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
1395i-4) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (c)(2)(B)(i)--
                    (A) by striking ``, and that--'' and inserting a 
                semicolon; and
                    (B) by striking subclauses (I) and (II); and
            (2) in subsection (h)(3), by inserting ``made before the 
        date of the enactment of the Rural Health Care Access Act of 
        2025'' after ``any redesignation''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a)(1) shall 
apply with respect to any designation or redesignation made on or after 
the date of the enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>