36-2905.02. Inpatient reimbursement; rural hospitals; definition

A. If monies are appropriated for rural hospitals, the Arizona health care cost containment system administration shall request the centers for medicare and medicaid services to approve federal matching medicaid funding for the purposes specified in this section.

B. The administration shall distribute the available monies to increase inpatient reimbursement for qualifying rural hospitals.  At no time shall the reimbursement exceed the cost of providing care. The administration may make supplemental payments to qualifying rural hospitals based on utilization or adjust rates, established pursuant to section 36-2903.01, subsection G, for qualifying rural hospitals.  No adjustments to inpatient reimbursement under section 36-2903.01, subsection G to hospitals other than rural hospitals may be made as a result of this section.

C. For the purposes of this section, "rural hospital" means either:

1. A health care institution that is licensed as an acute care hospital, that has one hundred or fewer beds and that is located in a county with a population of less than five hundred thousand persons.

2. A health care institution that is licensed as a critical access hospital.