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Rural Health Information Hub
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Hospitals – News

News stories from the past 60 days.

Jun 23, 2025 - Announcement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of the approval of The Joint Commission as a national accrediting organization for hospitals that wish to participate in the Medicare or Medicaid programs. This approval is applicable July 15, 2025, to July 15, 2030.
Source: Federal Register
Jun 17, 2025 - Announces the first cohort of the new Rural Hospital Stabilization Program (RHSP) consisting of 8 rural hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) across the U.S. RHSP is supported by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) and administered by the National Rural Health Resource Center to provide technical assistance and recommendations to rural hospitals on financial assessments, operational performance, and opportunities to fill gaps and enhance healthcare services for the communities and populations they serve.
Source: National Rural Health Resource Center
Jun 16, 2025 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is seeking comments on a proposed information collection project titled "National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Respiratory Data." This information collection is designed to standardize the data elements collected from across the country regarding the impact of respiratory viruses on healthcare facilities. Comments are due by August 15, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Jun 16, 2025 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ) is seeking comments on a proposed information collection project titled "Monitoring Breastfeeding-Related Maternity Care—U.S. Hospitals." The Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care (mPINC) survey is a census of maternity care hospitals in the United States and territories to better understand national breastfeeding supportive maternity practices and changes in these practices over time. Information collected will be used to identify, document, and share information related to changes in practices processes over time at the hospital, state, regional, and national levels. Comments are due by August 15, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Jun 11, 2025 - The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is seeking comments on the following information collections: 1) Hospital and Health Care Complex Cost Report; 2) D-SNP Enrollee Advisory Committee; and 3) Administrative Simplification HIPAA Compliance Review. Comments are due by July 11, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Jun 5, 2025 - Notice from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) making technical and typographical errors in the April 30, 2025, proposed rule.
Source: Federal Register
Apr 30, 2025 - Notice of a proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding changes to the hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) for operating and capital-related costs of acute care hospitals for fiscal year 2026. Contains details of proposed changes related to Medicare graduate medical education (GME) for teaching hospitals; payment policies and the annual payment rates for the Medicare prospective payment system (PPS) for inpatient hospital services provided by long-term care hospitals; and certain quality programs, among other things. Comments are due by June 10, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Apr 30, 2025 - Notice of a proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updating the FY 2026 prospective payment rates, outlier threshold, and wage index for Medicare inpatient hospital services provided by inpatient psychiatric facilities (IPF), including psychiatric hospitals and excluded psychiatric units of an acute care hospital or Critical Access Hospital. Includes a proposed revision to the payment adjustment factors for teaching status and for IPFs in rural areas. This proposed rule also proposes changes to measures used in the Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Quality Reporting (IPFQR) Program and changes to update and codify the Extraordinary Circumstances Exception policy. Among other things, this rule seeks comments regarding potential future revisions to the IPFQR Program. Comments are due by June 10, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Apr 30, 2025 - Notice of a proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) seeking comments on updates to the prospective payment system for inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) for fiscal year 2026. Among other things, this rule proposes classification and weighting factors for the IRF prospective payment system's case-mix groups, continues the second year of the 3-year phase-out of the rural adjustments, and includes proposals for the IRF Quality Reporting Program. Comments are due by June 10, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Last Updated: 6/23/2025