Organizations knock OIG's proposals for critical access hospitals
The American Hospital Association (AHA) and theNational Rural Health Association (NRHA) have taken issue with a report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) that calls for changes to the critical access hospital (CAH) program. The report recommends the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) seek legislative authority to remove the permanent exemption from the distance requirement for “necessary provider” CAHs and revise the CAH Conditions of Participation to include alternative location-related requirements. The OIG report also recommends that CMS periodically reassess CAHs for compliance with all location-related requirements, and apply its uniform definition of “mountainous terrain” to all CAHs.
“The OIG’s recommendation that CMS seek legislative authority to remove and reevaluate certain CAHs’ special Medicare status is completely inappropriate and demonstrates an unfortunate lack of understanding of how healthcare is delivered in rural America,” stated Joanna Hiatt Kim, AHA vice president of payment policy, on AHAanews.com. If the recommendations in the report were implemented, it would result in shutting down up to 70% of a state’s rural hospitals, according to NRHA CEO Alan Morgan, in a blog entry on the association’s website.