The Health 202: Congress is throwing a lifeline to struggling rural hospitals

with Paige Winfield Cunningham

The slow-rolling funding crisis facing rural health care has unfolded over decades, leaving in its wake shuttered hospitals and communities without care.

But rural hospitals may soon be able to shed their expensive inpatient beds without losing hospital status, allowing them to cut costs by focusing only on emergency and outpatient care.

That’s under a measure Congress passed last year, which creates a new Medicare payment model for rural emergency hospitals. Lawmakers are urging the Biden administration to prioritize its implementation, while hospitals anxiously await new details to determine whether it will help their bottom lines.