{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-hyde-smith-targeted-program-offers-rural-hospitals-financial-shot-in-the-arm-but-cms-isnt-maximizing-it", "Grassley, Hyde-Smith: Targeted Program Offers Rural Hospitals Financial \u2018Shot in the Arm,\u2019 but CMS Isn\u2019t Maximizing It", "2024-10-03", "2024", "2024-10", "Republican", "Senate", "IA", "Chuck Grassley", "G000386", "www.grassley.senate.gov", "grassley", "https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) are pressing Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on its refusal to use the budget-neutral Rural Community Hospital Demonstration (RCHD), despite the program\u2019s proven efficacy for participating rural hospitals and qualifying facilities\u2019 interest in joining.\n\n\u201cCMS last solicited program applications in 2017 and has communicated to us that the agency is not planning any further solicitations. Current law allows up to 30 hospitals to participate in the RCHD, but for the past several years CMS has underutilized the program, leaving as many as eight spots vacant,\u201d the senators wrote CMS Administrator Brooks-LaSure.\n\n\u201cA 2022 evaluation report found that new hospitals participating in the RCHD program saw their finances stabilize. The evaluation noted that hospitals joining the program saw a \u2018large, positive, and statistically significant increases in their Medicare inpatient and combined margins.\u2019 Rural stakeholders have called the RCHD a \u2018lifeline\u2019 and that has enabled struggling hospitals to expand health care services to seniors,\u201d they continued. \u201cThe RCHD program is supporting rural hospitals and it should be fully utilized. If CMS has the tools to help one rural hospital, then you should be doing something about it.\u201d\n\nRead Grassley and Hyde-Smith\u2019s full letter HERE.\n\nBackground:\n\nThe RCHD program improves financial viability for hospitals that are too large to be Critical Access Hospitals and too small to succeed under Medicare\u2019s hospital inpatient prospective payment system. Congress established the RCHD in 2003 and has reauthorized it three times since.\n\nGrassley\u2019s RCHD Efforts:\n\nGrassley is a lifelong resident of rural Iowa who, through his membership and leadership on the Senate Finance Committee, consistently works to improve patients\u2019 access to care and ensure their hospitals stay open, regardless of where they\u2019re located.\n\nLast year, Grassley secured a commitment from Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra that his agency would \u201cdo more\u201d to support rural hospitals in need. Grassley followed up shortly after, urging CMS to open RCHD spots. At Grassley\u2019s request, CMS spoke with Iowa facilities looking to participate in the RCHD program. However, after months sans action, Grassley at a March hearing questioned Secretary Becerra about his failure to fill program openings, asserting the agency should be wielding every tool in the toolbox to help rural hospitals.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:57:20Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-hyde-smith-targeted-program-offers-rural-hospitals-financial-shot-in-the-arm-but-cms-isnt-maximizing-it"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6389131303876638, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}