Chuck Grassley: “rural hospitals in America are under the gun. Some of them are closing. We have about 90 rural hospitals in the State of…”

“rural hospitals in America are under the gun. Some of them are closing. We have about 90 rural hospitals in the State of Iowa. For a change, I have some good news for rural hospitals. For years, I have been pressing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services--CMS, for short--to open applications for the 10 unfilled spots in a program that we call Rural Community Hospital Demonstration. This program allows Medicare to test innovative payment models to support rural hospitals. It boosts the financial viability for rural hospitals that are too large to be critical access hospitals and yet too small to benefit from Medicare's hospital inpatient prospective payment system. Currently, the program is helping four rural hospitals in Iowa--in Fort Dodge, Grinnell, Newton, and Spirit Lake. For years, I have heard excuses from the executive branch for why they wouldn't fill the open spots with interested rural hospitals. So earlier this year, I asked CMS Administrator Dr. Oz to fill the open spots in this rural hospital program. Finally, on May 14, Dr. Oz announced that 10 new hospitals will be added to the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program. Also, hospitals that applied but were not selected will be put on a wait list if other spots open up. Until this time, CMS has been underutilizing this program and ignoring interested rural hospitals.”