Rural hospitals that weathered the pandemic are facing a funding cliff, in danger of losing some $600 million in Medicare funding at the end of this month unless Congress intervenes.
With COVID relief no longer available, some rural facilities in parts of the country with older, sicker populations are struggling to stay open and are cutting services.The immediate focus is on a pair of Medicare payment programs set to expire on Sept. 30.
But any relief measure would likely have to hitch a ride on a must-pass bill, like the anticipated stopgap funding measure to keep the government running into the new fiscal yearThe hospitals funded by the programs are typically too big to be classified as "critical access hospitals" and qualify for The plan has drawn criticism for being too rigid, or too much of a gamble for facilities to buy in. Only hospitals with fewer than 50 beds qualify.predicted that just 68 of the more than 1,500 hospitals that could convert to this model would opt in.Some rural facilities have cut services and grappled with negative margins even before confronting a funding cliff.
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