Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) introduced bipartisan legislation to help restore the critical access designation to Glenn Medical Center in Willows, California, in the hope it may be reopened.
The bill would reverse a recent decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that dramatically reduced reimbursement rates for Glenn Medical and forced the hospital to shutter this month.
“Through no fault of its own, Glenn Medical Center lost its designation as a critical access hospital. The resulting closure of this hospital or others like it, is devastating and potentially deadly for California families. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to support this simple, bipartisan legislative fix to save Glenn County’s only hospital and ensure families don’t lose access to life-saving care,” said Senator Schiff.
Earlier this year, CMS announced that it was revoking Glenn Medical’s Critical Access Hospital (CAH) designation because a new method was used to calculate the distance between Glenn and another hospital.
The change caused a massive loss of federal funding for Glenn Medical Center, and as a result the hospital announced it had no choice but to close. This has left thousands of residents with no option but to travel miles away to receive care.
The full text of the bill is available here.
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