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Rural Referral Center (RRC) Program

The Rural Referral Center (RRC) Program was established to support high-volume rural hospitals that treat a large number of complicated cases and transfers from small, rural hospitals. Rural Referral Centers: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNProducts/downloads/RuralRefCtrfctsht2008.pdf

Rural Referral Center Program Requirements:

The Code of Federal Regulations under 42 CFR 412.96 contains a full description of the criteria for RRCs. A Medicare participating acute care hospital is classified as a RRC if it meets ONE of the following criteria:

The hospital is located in a rural area AND has the following number of beds available for use:

Has 275 or more beds during its most recently completed cost reporting period. If the hospital's bed count has changed, written documentation may be submitted with the application regarding one or more of the following:

The merger of two or more hospitals;·
Acute care beds are reopened that were previously closed for renovation;
Acute care beds are transferred to the Perspective Payment Systems that were previously classified as part of an excluded unit; or
The hospital expands the number of acute care beds for use and these beds are permanently maintained for inpatients. Such expansion does not include beds in corridors or other temporary beds.

2. The hospital shows the following three elements:

At least 50 percent of the hospital's Medicare patients are referred from other hospitals or from physicians who are not on staff of the hospital;
At least 60 percent of the hospital's Medicare patients live more than 25 miles from the hospital and; or
At least 60 percent of all services the hospital furnishes to Medicare patients are furnished to patients who live more than 25 miles from the hospital.

Oregon had four hospitals operating RRC Programs.

Hospital	County	Beds
Bay Area Hospital	Coos	172
Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center	Benton	188
Skye Lakes Medical Center	Klamath	176
St. Charles Medical Center	Deschutes	181

4000 Kruse Way Place
Building 2, Suite 100
Lake Oswego, Oregon 97035
503-636-2204 | Fax: 503-636-8310
info@oahhs.org

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