WASHINGTON – Congressman Troy Balderson (R-OH) is pushing for payback flexibility for rural hospitals within the Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payment Program. In a joint letter, Balderson and a group of colleagues urge bicameral leadership to ensure future COVID-19 relief legislation includes flexibility for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to forgive these Medicare loans for rural hospitals facing financial hardship.

“Many rural hospitals, including some in the Twelfth District, provide rural Americans’ only access point to care, which is why these hospitals play a vital role in the wellbeing of rural communities,” said Balderson. “In daily conversations with these hospitals, it’s evident the coronavirus pandemic magnifies the hurdles and challenges these hospitals already face. We can’t allow this pandemic to put the future of rural hospitals – and the wellbeing of Americans – in jeopardy.”

The Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payment Program functions by providing loans from Medicare to providers that already bill Medicare regularly for services. For providers facing financial hardship, advance payments help finance operations upfront without gaps in service. Advance payments through this program are typically paid back with interest by providers. Often times, rural hospitals, including some in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District, face uncertainty about the ability to repay these advance payments with interest. Continued care being of critical importance to rural citizens through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, flexibility on repayment of these advances is a necessity to the livelihood of both rural hospitals and the citizens they service.

“While the Medicare Accelerated payment program and the twenty percent COVID-19 add-on payment are useful tools to help rural facilities weather the current storm, many hospitals, especially critical access hospitals (CAHs) and sole community hospitals, fear the inability to repay the accelerated payments once this crisis is over,” the letter writes. “Rural hospitals in particular have seen their normal sources of revenue dry up during this crisis. This, combined with the reality that many of these facilities will not see the same benefits of the twenty percent add-on payment as urban systems, has led many providers to wonder if they will have to close their doors as a result of this crisis.”

Read the full letter.

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