PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S4546-4547)
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Jun 23, 2015
Rural Emergency Acute Care Hospital Act
This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to designate as a rural emergency hospital any facility that as of December 31, 2014, was:
a critical access hospital (CAH) or a hospital with at most 50 beds located in a county in a rural area or treated as located in a rural area, or
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
one of such hospitals that ceased operations during the period beginning five years before enactment of this Act and ending on December 30, 2014.
A rural emergency hospital:
must provide 24-hour emergency medical care and observation care not exceeding an annual per patient average of 24 hours or more than 1 midnight,
does not provide any acute care inpatient beds and has protocols in place for the timely transfer of patients who require acute care inpatient services or other inpatient services,
has elected to be designated as a rural emergency hospital,
has received approval to operate as one from the state, and
is certified by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Medicare part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance Benefits) shall cover rural emergency hospital emergency services as well as ambulance services provided by a rural emergency hospital or other provider to transport patients who require acute care inpatient services or other inpatient services from the rural emergency hospital to a hospital or a CAH.
Payment for rural emergency hospital outpatient services of a rural emergency hospital, including telehealth and ambulance services, shall be 110% percent of their reasonable costs.
Rural emergency hospitals must be approved by the state and certified by HHS.
States shall have the option of waiving a specified distance requirement between a CAH certified as a rural emergency hospital and another facility located in the state that is seeking designation as a CAH.
Primary health services which the National Health Service Corps may provide under the Public Health Service Act shall include emergency medicine provided by physicians in a rural emergency hospital.
Hospitals with approved residency programs in emergency medicine shall include time spent by interns and residents in the emergency department of a rural hospital in the full-time equivalent count with respect to reimbursement for the indirect (stipend, fringe benefit) and direct (all or substantially all training) costs of medical education in subsection (d) hospitals.
(Generally, a subsection [d] hospital is an acute care hospital, particularly one that receives payments under Medicare's inpatient prospective payment system [IPPS] when providing covered inpatient services to eligible beneficiaries.)
People & committees
Sen. Grassley, Chuck [R-IA] · R–IA
Legislative record
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S4546-4547)
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Aug 12, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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