Schrier Introduces Bill to Aid Rural Hospitals

8th District Representative Kim Schrier introduced a bill to the House of Representatives Tuesday that intends to provide immediate relief to rural hospitals.

According to a press release, the Immediate Relief for Rural Facilities and Providers Act will give emergency grants and benefits to rural hospitals in an attempt to help address the impact the COVID-19 crisis is having on local health care systems.

Specifically, the legislation will:

• Provide Immediate Relief for Rural Hospitals with an emergency mandatory one-time grant to Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) and rural Prospective Payment System (PPS) hospitals equaling $1,000 per patient per day.
• Provide Stabilization for Rural Hospitals with a one-time, emergency grant for CAH and rural PPS hospitals equaling the total reimbursement received for services for the first three months of 2019 to stabilize the loss of revenue.
• Encourage Hospital Coordination with a 20% increase in Medicare reimbursement for any patient in a rural hospital using the swing bed program to incentivize freeing up capacity in larger, overcrowded hospitals.
• Provide Stabilization and Relief for Providers with an emergency, one-time grant for all providers and ambulatory surgery centers equal to their total payroll from January 1 - April 1, 2019.
• Provide Funding for Physicians and Providers by authorizing the Small Business Administration to provide low interest loans to providers and ambulatory surgery centers at a 0.25% interest rate that will not accrue until two years after the COVID-19 pandemic has ended

The injection of money is intended to stabilize a facility's budget by offsetting the current loss of revenue. Many rural hospitals, even those without a single patient suffering from COVID-19, are struggling after Governor Inslee ordered all elective surgeries canceled or postponed.