Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act of 2019
Official title: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to restore State authority to waive for certain facilities the 35-mile rule for designating critical access hospitals under the Medicare program.
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Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act of 2019
This bill 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.
The bill allows a hospital to also qualify if the hospital is a small, rural hospital that (1) serves a health professional shortage area, or a high number of low-income individuals or Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries; (2) has experienced financial losses for two consecutive years; and (3) attests to having a strategic plan to address financial solvency.
- Introduced in House Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 5481: Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act of 2019. 116th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/116-HR-5481/
"H.R. 5481: Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act of 2019." 116th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/116-HR-5481/.
H.R. 5481, 116th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/116-HR-5481/.
[H.R. 5481: Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act of 2019](https://openamerica.io/bill/116-HR-5481/)