Bill > SB1095

This bill modifies Pennsylvania's Rural Health Redesign Center Authority by replacing references to a "global budget model" with an "alternative payment model" and making several key changes to how rural hospitals and healthcare payers participate in this program. The bill redefines "eligible hospital services" to focus more narrowly on inpatient and hospital-based outpatient services, removes specific exclusions from those services, and updates terminology throughout the existing law. The legislation empowers the board overseeing the program to evaluate and select rural hospitals for participation, calculate and administer budgets, monitor hospital performance, and require corrective actions if hospitals do not meet transformation plan targets. The bill also allows the board to collect and analyze data from participating hospitals and payers, with a seven-year retention limit, and establishes a process for hospitals and payers to submit letters of interest and sign participation agreements. Importantly, the bill maintains the original program's goals of reducing healthcare costs, maintaining access to care, improving quality of care in rural counties, and meeting local community health needs, while providing more flexibility in how those goals can be achieved through the alternative payment model.

Health and Social Services

https://www.palegis.us/legislation/bills/2025/sb1095