Leaders with the Ways and Means Committee have unanimously passed two pieces of legislation that are designed to protect the U.S. from Washington gaining too much power.
The first bill, the Continuing Access to Hospitals Act of 2016 (H.R. 5613), gives rural communities the access they need to high-quality health care. This is accomplished with the regulatory relief of Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs).
“In January of 2014, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services began enforcing a requirement that physicians must supervise outpatient therapy at Critical Access Hospitals and other small, rural hospitals,” Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS), author of H.R. 5613, said. “Most of these outpatient procedures are relatively simple, are very safe and would not benefit from a federal mandate that requires a physician always be physically present in the hospital. And, as a practical matter, in rural hospitals across America, such a requirement is simply not feasible. There are dozens of critical access hospitals in Kansas that folks rely on for care. Without these hospitals, those folks will be forced to travel farther to get the care they need because critical access hospitals cannot afford to comply with this burdensome rule.”
