Kansas Senator Jerry Moran has introduced a bill in Congress to help previously closed rural hospitals to reopen with limited services.
Moran’s bill is called the Rural Emergency Hospital Adjustment Act. It would allow closed hospitals to reopen and apply for a Rural Emergency Hospital designation if they meet eligibility requirements.
The REH designation was created in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, and it allows certain hospitals to continue operating with limited services rather than closing. Currently, hospitals are only eligible for the designation if they met the requirements when the bill was signed into law on December 27th, 2020. Moran’s bill would extend the eligibility date back to January 1st, 2015 for hospitals that were either critical access hospitals or rural hospitals with no more than 50 beds.
Moran said in a press release that access to outpatient and emergency services often determines if a rural community can survive. He said more than 100 rural hospitals have closed since 2015, and his bill would allow these hospitals to reopen and serve their communities.
