WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) today introduced bipartisan legislation to protect rural Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) and their patients by eliminating a new “condition of payment” rule from The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This overly burdensome rule requires physicians in rural CAHs to predict and limit a patients’ stay to within 96 hours. Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.) introduced the bill with Senator Roberts. The bill has 16 original cosponsors and the support of the American Hospital Association, the National Rural Health Association and the American College of Surgeons.

“This absurd rule puts arbitrary limits on how many hours patients can stay in critical access hospitals and asks doctors to be clairvoyant and predict the unknown when admitting a patient. This puts the doctor in a terrible position and damages the all-important doctor-patient relationship,” Roberts said.

“We need to focus on ensuring rural patients have access to the health system, not come up with bureaucratic ways to make it harder for those patients to get quality care from their doctors based on where they live.”

The Senators’ bill, the Critical Access Hospital Relief Act of 2015 removes the “condition of payment” for Critical Access Hospitals that requires a physician to certify upon admission that each patient will be discharged or transferred in less than 96 hours.

The American Hospital Association has announced their support of the legislation. “The AHA supports this bill to relieve our nation’s critical access hospitals (CAHs) from the unnecessary, burdensome federal regulation requiring a physician to certify a patient will be released or transferred within 96 hours,” said Rick Pollack, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association. “This bipartisan legislation would provide important relief for CAHs, and help ensure all Americans – no matter where they live — have access to essential health care services.”

At issue is whether the hospital can be reimbursed if, for instance, a physician certifies that they expect the patient to be treated and discharged within 96 hours, but the situation changes and the patient must be kept longer. The physician will be faced with a scenario in which they have failed to meet the terms of their certification. This is likely to lead to premature discharges and re-admissions, both of which CMS has taken actions to minimize. In some cases rural patients may be forced to travel to an urban hospital a great distance away.

The bill is cosponsored by Senators Jon Tester (D-Mont), Dan Coats (R-Ind), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

Senator Roberts is a co-chairman of the Senate Rural Health Caucus. He is a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.