June 15, 2021
By News Director Jared Atha
Congressman Frank Lucas of Cheyenne (R-OK) and Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Jim Inhofe (R-OK) announced recently, after months of work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Harmon Memorial Hospital in Hollis has received an extension of their designation to continue to serve the community as a Critical Access Hospital. In March, Lankford, Inhofe, and Lucas sent a letter to then-Acting CMS Administrator Liz Richter to push for Harmon Hospital to remain a critical access hospital.
Earlier this year, Lucas cosponsored a bipartisan piece of legislation, the Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act, which would support financially vulnerable rural hospitals facing risk of closure. The legislation would update Medicare’s CAH designation so more rural hospitals can qualify for this financial lifeline and continue to serve their communities with quality, affordable health care services.
The Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act would support and stabilize rural hospitals by providing flexibility around the 35-mile distance requirement and enabling states to certify a hospital as a “necessary provider” in order to obtain CAH designation. This authority ended in 2006, but this bill would reopen this financial lifeline for certain rural hospitals that serve a low-income community, are located in a health professional shortage area, and that have operated with negative margins for multiple years.
