January 3, 2025

Application Now Open for Rural Community Hospitals to Participate in Demonstration Program

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is now accepting new applications for the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration. The demonstration tests cost-based reimbursement for Medicare inpatient services for small rural hospitals with fewer than 51 beds that are not eligible to be Critical Access Hospitals.

As part of a broader rural strategy initiative, CMS hosted a Rural Health Hackathon in August 2024 to collaboratively produce creative, actionable ideas to address health care challenges facing rural communities. This Request for Applications (RFA) is one effort to help address these challenges.

The RFA is open and available on Rural Community Hospital Demonstration webpage. Hospitals interested must apply by 11:59 Eastern Standard Time on March 1, 2025. Hospitals currently participating in the demonstration do not need to complete a new application.

For the latest information on the demonstration, visit the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration webpage.

If you have questions about the demonstration, please email RCHDemo@cms.hhs.gov.

January 3, 2025

Public Comment Period Now Open: Screening for Cervical Cancer USPSTF Draft Recommendation, Draft Evidence Review, and Draft Modeling Report, Comment by January 13

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that women ages 21 to 65 get screened regularly for cervical cancer and seeks comments on the following documents:

• Draft Recommendation statement
• Draft Evidence Review, and
• Draft Modeling Report.

Note the public comment period has been expanded from the standard four weeks to five weeks to account for the holidays. Comment by January 13, 2025.

To comment, click on the title of the draft document Here