The Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program (Flex Program)
Ohio’s Flex Program is administered through the Ohio Department of Health, State Office of Rural Health (SORH) and focuses on assisting communities to sustain the viability of small rural hospitals and rural health care services.
Goals
The goals of the program include:
To achieve these goals, the Flex Program provides for the creation of rural health networks, promotes regionalization of rural health services and improves access to hospitals and other services for rural residents.
Critical Access Hospitals
CAHs are limited service hospitals (acute care, fewer than 25 acute and/or swing beds) designated to provide essential services. A CAH designation allows the hospital to be reimbursed on a “reasonable cost basis” for inpatient and outpatient services provided to Medicare patients. Our ultimate aim is to strengthen collaborative systems of care, and CAHs serve as the hub for improving access to quality health care services for Ohio’s rural residents.
The federal Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program (Flex Program) created the CAH Program to support small rural hospitals that were struggling to provide adequate care to their communities. Ohio’s Flex Program assists 34 CAHs that serve as rural health network hubs of improved access and health services.
Creation of the Flex Program
The federal Flex Program was established by the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997. States with rural hospitals established their own Flex Programs by applying for federal funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration.
Legislation surrounding the program has undergone many changes and updates such as the Balanced Budget Refinement Act (BBRA) in 1999; the Benefits Improvement Protection Act (BIPA) in 2000; and the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003.
Funding
The Ohio Flex program provides support for the efforts of CAHs through the distribution of grant dollars to all certified CAHs through a relationship we have established with the Foundation for Healthy Communities, the nonprofit arm of the Ohio Hospital Association (OHA) (http://www.ohanet.org). These hospitals receive direct technical assistance on activities related to:
The Quality Improvement (QI) Work Group
The Flex Program has also joined forces with the OHA and Ohio KePRO (http://www.ohiokepro.com) to coordinate and implement a quality benchmarking project for Ohio CAHs and to form a Quality Improvement (QI) Work Group. The QI Work Group consists of 33 CAHs and meets quarterly. Another product of the QI Work Group is the creation of a QI listserv, which Ohio KePRO has agreed to maintain. The QI listserv has proven to be a valuable resource for sharing ideas for CAH quality and clinical staff.
Mailing Address:
Ohio Department of Health
Flex Program
Primary Care and Rural Health Programs
246 North High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Telephone: (614) 752-5133
Fax: (614) 995-4235
E-mail: bchssd@odh.ohio.gov
Last Updated: 4/28/2009
Last Reviewed: 4/28/2009
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