Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Defending Rural Access to Long Term Acute Care Act of 2013”.
Defending Rural Access to Long Term Acute Care Act of 2013
A BILL
To exempt certain long-term care hospitals operating in a single-hospital MSA from the Medicare threshold payment adjustment policy for long-term care hospitals, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Exemption from threshold payment adjustment policy for certain long-term care hospitals operating in a single-hospital MSA
In general— The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall not apply sections 412.534 or 412.536 of title 42, Code of Federal Regulations, to any long-term care hospital operating in a single-hospital MSA (as defined in subsection (b)).
Long-Term care hospital operating in a single-Hospital MSA defined— In this section, the term long-term care hospital operating in a single-hospital MSA means an entity that meets the following criteria on the date of the enactment of this Act:
The entity is a long-term care hospital as defined in section 1861(ccc) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(ccc)), but is not a long-term care hospital described in section 1886(d)(1)(B)(iv)(II) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395ww(d)(1)(B)(iv)(II)).
The entity is located in a Metropolitan Statistical Area (as defined by the Office of Management and Budget in OMB Bulletin 13–01 published February 28, 2013) that has only one subsection (d) hospital (as defined in section 1886(d)(2)(D) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395ww(d)(2)(D)).
Effective date— Subsection (a) applies to long-term care hospitals for cost reporting periods beginning on or after October 1, 2013.