Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act of 2025
Official title: A bill 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 acc… Show full official titleShow less
Official title: A bill 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, and for other purposes.
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text: CR S820-821)
Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act of 2025
This bill temporarily 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 beneficiaries; (2) has experienced financial losses for two consecutive years; and (3) attests to having a strategic plan to address financial solvency and to committing to provide a service that is in high demand in the hospital's service area. This authority expires nine years after the bill's enactment.
The Government Accountability Office must study the effects of the bill's implementation. In addition, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission must study and recommend payment systems for rural hospitals under Medicare. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services must subsequently establish a mechanism and issue guidance on how newly designated CAHs may transition to different payment models under Medicare, including any new payment models recommended by the commission.
- Introduced in Senate Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
- AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION
- AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION
- AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION
- AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION
- AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION
- AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION
Bodies those filers lobbied
- Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
- HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
- SENATE
- Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS)
- Homeland Security, Dept of (DHS)
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
- Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA)
- Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC)
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). S. 502: Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act of 2025. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-502/
"S. 502: Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act of 2025." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-502/.
S. 502, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-502/.
[S. 502: Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act of 2025](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-502/)