S 502 119th Congress
Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act of 2025
A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to restore State authority to waive for certain facilities the 35-mile rule for designating critical access hospitals under the Medicare program, and for other purposes.
Official Title as Introduced Congress.gov
Open official Congress.gov recordSource-linked procedural record
Bill journey
This is a chronology, not a progress score. Politically.com does not classify stages or infer what comes next. Records sharing a date are grouped because not every source field supplies a time.
Congress.gov Recently refreshed
U.S. Senate XML Recently refreshed
-
Introduction Congress.gov
Introduced
Introduced in the Senate.
Open bill recordOfficial action Congress.gov
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text: CR S820-821)
Open bill recordOfficial action Congress.gov
Introduced in Senate
Open bill recordText version Congress.gov
Introduced in Senate
A dated text-version record is available.
Open text record
View the complete bill journey as an accessible table
| Date and time | Record | Official detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| IntroductionIntroduced | Introduced in the Senate. | Congress.gov | |
| Official actionRead twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text: CR S820-821) | No additional detail supplied.IntroReferral · Senate | Congress.gov | |
| Official actionIntroduced in Senate | No additional detail supplied.IntroReferral · Library of Congress · Code 10000 | Congress.gov | |
| Text versionIntroduced in Senate | A dated text-version record is available. | Congress.gov |
House roll calls join only on matching Congress, legislation type, and number. Senate roll calls join only on matching source-supplied document type and number, not question text. Committee and related-measure relationships have no date in their relationship records and therefore are counted above but never placed on the chronology.
Congressional Research Service
CRS summary
Rural Hospital Closure Relief Act of 2025This bill temporarily allows additional hospitals to qualify as critical access hospitals (CAHs) that receive special payment under Medicare.Currently, in order to qualify as a CAH under Medicare, a hospital must either (1) be located more than 35 miles (or 15 miles in mountainous regions or areas with only secondary roads) from another hospital, or (2) have been certified prior to January 1, 2006, by the state as a necessary provider of services in the area.The bill allows a hospital to also qualify if the hospital is a small, rural hospital that (1) serves a health professional shortage area, or a high number of low-income individuals or Medicare beneficiaries; (2) has experienced financial losses for two consecutive years; and (3) attests to having a strategic plan to address financial solvency and to committing to provide a service that is in high demand in the hospital's service area. This authority expires nine years after the bill's enactment.The Government Accountability Office must study the effects of the bill's implementation. In addition, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission must study and recommend payment systems for rural hospitals under Medicare. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services must subsequently establish a mechanism and issue guidance on how newly designated CAHs may transition to different payment models under Medicare, including any new payment models recommended by the commission.
Official documents
Text versions
- Introduced in SenateFeb 10, 2025