SNFs to Receive Funds Via Proposed Rural Healthcare Bill

New legislation may be able to alleviate the healthcare and Medicare costs that have for so long caused issues regarding access to care in rural areas. Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) may see an increase in funding thanks to a proposed bill from Senator Bill Thune of South Dakota, according to an August 2 press release. This bill – the Rural Health Care Connectivity Act of 2015 – will allow SNFs to provide quality and innovative care in rural areas.

In rural communities where the nearest hospital may be thirty minutes away, receiving timely healthcare is not so simple. Not only is geography a major barrier, but so is expense.

As reported by RevCycleIntelligence.com, many rural healthcare providers face considerable problems with regard to Medicare reimbursements, putting these hospitals in financial trouble and often causing them to close down.

“The challenge of such high Medicare utilization is that cuts to the Medicare program represent a higher percent of our budget,” said Tim Wolters, Director of Reimbursement at Citizens Memorial Hospital and Reimbursement Specialist at Lake Region Health Center. “And, because of the high Medicare utilization, we have less commercial and managed care volume available to subsidize the Medicare losses.”

This Medicare reimbursement problem only further exacerbates care access. If a hospital can no longer afford to provide treatment to its patients, the access to care may also decrease.

This is why in 2012 the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) expanded the RHCP to include the Healthcare Connect Fund, which would enable individuals living in rural areas to utilize telehealth to receive healthcare. Telehealth alleviates the geographic burden in rural areas as well as curbs some of the costs of healthcare. However, SNFs are not considered a part of the RHCP and therefore do not receive the same kinds of funding for these programs. Senator Thune’s bill aims to change that.

“For many South Dakotans, it is not as easy as jumping in the car and driving down to the local hospital for a checkup, which is why access to rural health care, including telemedicine, is such an important issue for South Dakota families,” says Senator Thune. “This common-sense bill would support and improve the health care services that are currently out of reach. My legislation achieves this goal without raising the existing cap on the Universal Service Fund.”

When the Healthcare Connect Fund was added to the RHCP, there were initial plans to do a pilot program which would include funding SNFs. However, in 2014, the FCC halted this. In an attempt to reinstate that pilot program, Senator Thune wrote a letter highlighting its importance. As of present, that it still has not been resumed.

How else has rural healthcare been funded?

Various grant projects have also sought to help improve healthcare in rural areas. As reported by HealthITAnalytics.com, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have partnered to fund healthcare improvement throughout rural areas, including the improvement of telehealth.

The Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) project has helped improve connectivity between patients and providers. This has enabled many services that otherwise would not have been possible due to geographic, staffing, or financial barriers. Grant programs have even enabled telemedicine practice on land reservations of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe.

The path to improving rural healthcare is certainly not a clear one. Nonetheless, it is necessary to make improvements not only to provide patients with ample access to quality care, but to bring financial stability to hospitals throughout rural regions.