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1991.09.20 :  Grants -- Small Rural Hospitals

Contact:  Bob Hardy (202) 245-6145
September 20, 1991

       Grants totaling $23.4 million have been awarded to 533 small
rural hospitals to strengthen their ability to provide high-quality
care to Medicare beneficiaries, HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan,
M.D., announced today.
       New grants for FY 1991-92, totaling $8.2 million, will go to
hospitals in 42 states, while $15.2 million will go for second and
third year grants to selected 1989 and 1990 recipients.  The grants
were made under the Rural Health Care Transition Grants Program and
will be administered by the Health Care Financing Administration,
the federal agency that oversees the Medicare program.  
       "Improving rural health care continues to be a top
priority," Secretary Sullivan said.  "And, the grants are part of
our continuing commitment to provide better and more accessible
health care to the millions of Medicare beneficiaries who rely on
rural facilities for care."
       Rural Health Care Transition Grants can be used to support
innovative capital projects of many types, including expanded
outpatient and emergency services and the conversion of inpatient 
facilities to alternative services.  Funds are also available to
train health care professionals and to encourage physicians to
practice in rural areas.  Improved management and long term
planning, better patient transportation and outreach services and
telecommunications are other goals supported by the grants program.
       "With the help of these grants, many rural hospitals are
able to adopt to the ever changing population and new patterns of
health care needs we face in these communities," said HCFA
Administrator Gail R. Wilensky, Ph.D.
       The transition grants program makes awards of up to $50,000
annually for up to three years to non-profit, acute care rural
hospitals with fewer than 100 beds.  Now in its third year, the
program distributed over $8 million in its first year and $17
million in its second.  It was developed in consultation with the
HHS Office of Rural Health Policy, the American Hospital
Association and the National Association of Counties.  

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