Brief⁽¹⁾

S.B. 425 amends two acts relating to hospitals, thereby making terminology in the Kansas statutes consistent with terminology used in the federal Balanced Budget Act of 1997. First, the bill amends the act relating to the licensure of hospitals by changing the term "rural primary care hospital" to "critical access hospital." Second, the bill amends the act relating to rural health networks by replacing the definition of "rural primary care hospital" with a new definition of "critical access hospital" and deleting any reference to "essential access community hospital."

The Senate Committee amended the bill to restore five words that were inadvertently left out when the amendments were prepared.

Background

Kansas is one of seven states that has participated in a federal pilot program to authorize small rural hospitals to provide limited services and receive Medicare reimbursement. Upon determining the merits of the program, Congress repealed the limited pilot program and created statutory authority for the 50 states to participate. The new legislation uses different terminology from the pilot program. S.B. 425 is intended to make Kansas law consistent with the federal provisions.

During the Committee hearing, two conferees spoke in favor of the bill. The proponents were the Director of the Bureau of Local and Rural Health Systems, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and a representative from the Kansas Hospital Association.

The Division of the Budget anticipates no fiscal impact from passage of the bill.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext-bill.html.