Last month the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a memo to state survey agency directors that will affect certain providers. The memo (PDF) contains information about changes to statutory requirements for critical access hospitals (CAH). Instead of paraphrasing, I’ll quote from the memo:
The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), enacted on December 8, 2003, contained a number of modifications to the CAH statutory requirements including a new provision that eliminated the use of State-issued necessary provider designations (issued to allow participation of CAHs that do not meet the Condition of Participation requirement at 42 CFR ยง485.610(c) requiring a CAH to be located 35 miles from a hospital or another CAH or, in the case of mountainous terrain or in areas with only secondary roads available, a 15-mile drive). The MMA stipulates that the necessary provider designations would no longer be issued on or after January 1, 2006.
Critical access hospitals are designed to serve rural areas on a limited basis. According to CMS, such hospitals are required to be located in a rural area, more than a 35-mile drive from a hospital or health care facility, or be certified by the state to serve residents in rural areas.
