PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Feb 11, 2025
Supporting Access to Rural Community Hospitals Act of 2025
This bill temporarily allows additional hospitals to qualify as critical access hospitals (CAHs) that receive special payment under Medicare.
Currently, in order to qualify as a CAH under Medicare, a hospital must either (1) be located more than 35 miles (or 15 miles in mountainous regions or areas with only secondary roads) from another hospital, or (2) have been certified prior to January 1, 2006, by the state as a necessary provider of services in the area. Hospitals also must meet certain size and service requirements, including having no more than 25 acute care inpatient beds.
The bill allows, for one year, hospitals that are participating in the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program to also qualify as CAHs. (The program tests the feasibility of cost-based reimbursement for small rural hospitals that are too large to qualify as CAHs.)
People & committees
Rep. Flood, Mike [R-NE-1] · R–NE
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
Source last updated: Dec 5, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2025-02-11 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
The proposed Supporting Access to Rural Community Hospitals Act of 2025 would give certain rural hospitals a temporary exception to distance requirements when seeking “critical access hospital” designation. It would cover rural community hospitals participating in the demonstration program referenced in the bill when the change is enacted. The designation window would last one year, starting six months after enactment.
This Act may be cited as the Supporting Access to Rural Community Hospitals Act of 2025.
Waiving certain distance requirements for certain hospitals electing to be designated as critical access hospitals
(III) with respect to designations occurring during the 1-year period beginning on the date that is 6 months after the date of the enactment of this subclause, is a rural community hospital (as defined in subsection (f) of section 410A of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003) that was participating in the demonstration program established under such section as of such date of enactment.
Section 2(a) would add an alternative eligibility route to the existing critical access hospital designation provision. A hospital would need to meet the rural community hospital definition in the referenced law and be participating in that law’s demonstration program on the enactment date. The bill does not reproduce that definition or the existing eligibility routes.
Section 1820(c)(2)(B)(i) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395i–4(c)(2)(B)(i)) is amended— (1) in subclause (I), by striking or at the end; (2) in subclause (II), by adding or at the end; and (3) by adding at the end the following new subclause:
is a rural community hospital (as defined in subsection (f) of section 410A of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003) that was participating in the demonstration program established under such section as of such date of enactment.
The temporary route would apply to designations occurring within a one-year period beginning six months after enactment. This limits when a hospital could receive designation through this route; the quoted provision does not set an expiration date for a designation already received.
with respect to designations occurring during the 1-year period beginning on the date that is 6 months after the date of the enactment of this subclause
Section 2(b) would revise a condition in the demonstration program’s rural community hospital definition to say that the hospital “is not a critical access hospital.” Because the language being removed is not reproduced, the supplied text does not establish the full change from the existing condition.
Section 410A(f)(1)(A)(iv) of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (42 U.S.C. 1395ww note) is amended by striking is not and all that follows through the period and inserting is not a critical access hospital (as defined in section 1861(mm)(1) of the Social Security Act).
The supplied official-actions snapshot, updated December 5, 2025, records introduction in the House and referral to the House Committee on Ways and Means on February 11, 2025. It supplies no subsequent actions.
Source snapshot updated 2025-12-05T22:03:46Z. 2025-02-11: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. 2025-02-11: Introduced in House 2025-02-11: Introduced in House
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2025-02-11. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No unrelated provision or policy change attached to appropriations was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending for particular recipients or places was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version; it does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
Findings to examine
The supplied introduced text contains a narrowly limited eligibility exception directly related to the bill’s main policy. This classification does not establish whether the exception is justified or what its financial effects would be.
The proposed distance exception favors a defined group: rural community hospitals participating in the specified demonstration program on the enactment date. Those hospitals would receive a temporary alternative route to critical access hospital designation, available for designations during the one-year window beginning six months after enactment.
Waiving certain distance requirements for certain hospitals electing to be designated as critical access hospitals
(III) with respect to designations occurring during the 1-year period beginning on the date that is 6 months after the date of the enactment of this subclause, is a rural community hospital (as defined in subsection (f) of section 410A of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003) that was participating in the demonstration program established under such section as of such date of enactment.
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Dec 5, 2025. How PlainBill uses AI