U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) and Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) are finalizing bipartisan legislation to provide temporary 340b program requirement flexibilities to hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill will protect hospitals from losing 340b eligibility and waive 340b statutory requirements. Similar legislation sponsored by Sens. John Thune (R-SD), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Bob Portman (R-OH), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), S.4160, does not have the 340b hospital waiver. Senators Matsui and Stewart also tried getting the 340b legislation flexibilities passed in the recent HEROES act, but Senate Leaders and the White House are currently negotiating what will be put into the next package. Stewart states that many providers will become ineligible for 340b drug discounts due to the pandemic.

Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Tina Smith (D-MN) introduced bipartisan legislation that would waive Small Business Administration (SBA) affiliation rules for rural hospitals. The bill would allow non-profit critical access hospitals and hospitals that serve rural areas to qualify for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans by removing their SBA affiliation status. The CARES Act established the PPP to provide relief to small businesses with fewer than 500 employees in the form of forgivable loans. Currently, however, many small hospitals operate as part of a larger health system that exceeds the 500-employee limit under SBA’s affiliation rules. The bill would remove this restriction and grant rural hospitals access to the PPP program, allowing them to retain critical staff and provide quality care to patients for the duration of the pandemic. Please continue to contact your Members of Congress on behalf of this important legislation!

Rural Health advocates are helping to advance legislation that would allow struggling rural PPS hospitals to qualify to convert to critical-access hospitals, which would be a lifeline for certain hospitals amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In return, hospitals would limit their beds, services, and length of patient stays. This would allow a limited number of hospitals to get critical-access designation, even if they are less than 35 miles from another hospital. McConnell spoke on the proposal Wednesday, saying he is ‘attuned’ to it but did not explicitly commit to the proposal. McConnell referenced the aid rural hospitals received in the first coronavirus relief package, saying rural health is certainly a focus and will continue to be in the next relief bill. We expect the first draft of the next COVID-19 relief package to come next week.

By April Simpson

“As the COVID-19 pandemic battered large, metropolitan areas this spring, rural hospitals prepared to be next on the frontlines. But in order to ready their facilities for a potential surge in patients, those small hospitals had to forgo many of their most profitable operations. Months later, a few rural hospitals are fighting outbreaks. But others have empty beds, further threatening their viability in an era of shrinking health care options for people living in rural communities.” Read the full article here.

By Rob Brown

Selling a company to its employees could be a way to preserve small town and rural businesses with generations of tradition behind them. Rob Brown from Business Ownership Solutions has some advice on how to do it. Read more

By Liz Carey

Although the federal government dedicated significant funds to support rural hospitals during the pandemic, some struggle with murky spending rules and fear having to pay it back after the crisis is over. Read more