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Facebook LinkedIn RSS  CAH Status Challenge Must Consider Access
John Commins, for HealthLeaders Media, August 21, 2013  However,
rural healthcare advocates such as Putnam are correct when they
protest any review that is based on cost alone. There has to be
equal consideration for the role of critical access hospitals in
the rural healthcare safety net. And because job growth is a
critical issue in this country right now, the role of the
hospital as a local economic driver should also merit some
consideration.  Let's remember that critical access hospital
designation was created by Congress in 1997 after a wave of
rural hospital closings. With the designation 16 years ago
federal policymakers demonstrated that they understood the
importance of access and that what works in an urban hospital
might not work in a rural hospital.  Now that OIG has called for
a review of critical access hospital