The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services seeks up to 20 additional hospitals to participate in Medicare’s Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program, which pays eligible small rural hospitals for covered inpatient hospital services under a cost-based methodology. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act extended the demonstration program by five years and expanded it to 30 hospitals.
Ten hospitals currently participate in the program and will be allowed to continue. To participate, hospitals must have fewer than 51 acute-care inpatient beds and be located among the 20 states with the lowest population density: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
Upon publication of the solicitation notice in the Aug. 30 Federal Register, applications will be accepted for 45 days. For more on the demonstration program, aimed at helping rural hospitals meet the needs of their service areas, visit www.cms.gov.