A new law seeks to stabilize the financial condition of Pennsylvania’s rural hospitals.

Senate Bill 314, passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Wolf, establishes a new Rural Health Redesign Center Authority and Pennsylvania Rural Health Redesign Center fund that will seek to support the delivery of health care by rural hospitals in the state by, as a legislative co-sponsorship memo explained,

• creating an annual, prospective budget with regular, predictable payments;
• improving the ability to develop and carry out expanded and innovative community health services; and
• providing the capacity to pursue programs addressing key needs such as behavioral health and substance abuse and cooperative EMS.

The new approach will shift participating hospitals from fee-for-service to global payments.  Eligible hospitals will receive monthly global budget payments from payers based on historic revenue data that is adjusted for care delivery changes and inflation.

Learn more from the Becker’s Hospital Review article “Pennsylvania governor signs law providing regular, predictable payments to rural hospitals” and from the co-sponsorship memo that accompanied the bill’s introduction in Pennsylvania’s General Assembly.