Rural Health Care Access Act of 2025

The Rural Health Care Access Act of 2025 would modify eligibility rules for critical access hospitals, which receive special Medicare payment rates. Currently, hospitals must meet specific geographic criteria to qualify as critical access hospitals: they must be located more than 35 miles from another hospital (or 15 miles in mountainous or rural areas with limited road access), or they must have been certified by their state before January 1, 2006, as a necessary provider of services in their area.

This bill would eliminate these distance and prior certification requirements. If enacted, hospitals that do not currently meet these geographic or historical criteria could potentially qualify for critical access hospital status and the associated Medicare payment benefits. This change could affect hospital funding and operations in various communities, though the practical impact would depend on how many hospitals would newly qualify and how the change affects overall healthcare delivery and costs in different regions.

The bill was introduced in January 2025 and has not yet advanced to committee for further consideration. Most introduced bills do not progress beyond this initial stage.