Under a U.S. House bill passed May 9, critical-access rural hospitals will receive a five-year continuation of an exemption that allows them to apply for Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance, reports CQ Today. In 2003, critical access hospitals--institutions with a maximum of 25 beds and located 35 or more miles from other hospitals--were granted an exemption to qualify for low-interest-rate FHA mortgage insurance, which would have expired July 31. The exemption will now extend until July 31, 2011. “Recent healthcare statistics show a huge backlog of capital improvement needs for hospitals across the country, and nowhere is this situation growing more critical than in rural America, where they are often treated differently from those in urban areas,” the bill’s sponsor, Bob Ney, R-Ohio, told CQ Today.
