The federal government is hashing out the details on a new type of rural hospital, and new developments suggest regulators want to make it an attractive option.
So-called Rural Emergency Hospitals (REH) will run emergency rooms, but won’t offer inpatient care. On top of bumped-up Medicare reimbursement, they’ll get facility payments north of $3 million annually, which is nothing to sneeze at for small hospitals. The new details were part of the government’s proposed Medicare payment rates for hospital outpatient services in 2023, released Friday.