WASHINGTON, May 17, 2017 – Sen.
Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sen. Cory Gardner
of Colorado today re-introduced legislation to help rural hospitals stay open
while meeting the needs of rural residents for emergency room care and
outpatient services.
“A car accident or a heart attack is
dangerous under the best of circumstances, but it’s a lot more dangerous for
someone who’s far away from an emergency room,” Grassley said. “When a
rural hospital closes, its emergency room closes with it. This proposal will
fill a pressing need, help keep hospital doors open, and offer hospital
services where and when people need them most.”
“Our rural hospitals are essential
institutions in communities across Minnesota. They don’t just provide vital
health services, they employ thousands of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and
other health care workers,” Klobuchar said. “Millions of people depend on
keeping these hospitals open. Our bipartisan legislation will help ensure that
rural Minnesotans and Americans across the country have access to medical care
when and where they need it most.”
“Coloradans living in rural
communities should not be denied access to healthcare simply because they do
not live in a large metropolitan area,” Gardner said. “This commonsense,
bipartisan legislation provides rural hospitals an option to continue providing
emergency services to rural America even if they do not meet Medicare’s
criteria for inpatient beds. During an emergency, time is of the essence, and
it is critical that we maintain access to life-saving treatment regardless of
your zip code.”
The senators noted that 60 percent
of trauma deaths in the United States occur in rural areas, where only 15
percent of the population is represented. The pace of rural hospital
closures is accelerating, and many other hospitals that haven’t closed are
struggling to keep their doors open.
Under Medicare, many rural hospitals
are designated as Critical Access Hospitals, meaning they have to maintain a
certain amount of inpatient beds as well as an emergency room. Many
hospitals struggle to attract enough inpatients to keep their Critical Access
Hospital status. When they close their doors, it often means a community
loses its emergency services. Studies show that proximity to an emergency
room often means the difference between life and death.
The senators’ bipartisan bill, the Rural
Emergency Acute Care Hospital (REACH) Act, would create a new Rural
Emergency Hospital classification under Medicare. The hospital would have
an emergency room and outpatient services. It would not have the
inpatient beds that many hospitals are struggling to maintain. For
example, a patient in a rural hospital with kidney disease might go to his
community hospital for dialysis as an outpatient service. He would go to
a separate major hospital for specialized care such as a kidney
operation. He would go to his community hospital for emergency care for
an acute episode, when time is of the essence.
The bill wouldn’t force any new
requirements on hospitals. It simply would offer them a new option. The
hospitals would have to maintain some protocols in exchange for removing
inpatient services, such as being able to rapidly move a patient to a larger
hospital elsewhere that offers more services.
The bill text is available here.
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