SMH taking final steps for critical access conversion

SMH taking final steps for critical access conversion Alex Kielar Tue, 06/03/2025 - 7:07 am X Stephens Memorial Hospital is currently taking the final steps to convert to a Critical Access Hospital (CAH) from a Prospective Payment System (PPS) facility. The hospital is currently on track to officially receive that designation in July and they are currently in the process of switching over their billing processes to critical access billing. The latest step, according to CEO Gena Speer, was having their PPS numbers deactivated and filing the critical access numbers in the system. They are now waiting for approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that goes through final reviews. “Hopefully only a few more days for that to be fully active, so that we can start that,” Speer said at the board’s Thursday, May 29 meeting. “Right now, traditional Medicare and Medicare damage claims are just being covered. They will be dropped as soon as we can do that.” Speer noted that there is about a month’s worth of rebilling that needs to be done, because the application conversion was backdated to Tuesday, April 8. Part of the process of receiving the designation, which was previously completed by the hospital, was decreasing its number of beds from 40 to 20. Board President Tom Echols explained at an earlier meeting that the designation allows the hospital to receive better reimbursement and increase its compensation, leading to SMH being able to hire and retain staff. “It doesn’t really change anything about your care,” Echols said. “It increases our compensation and we are able to keep the hospital open.” According to Dr. Kelli Windsor, switching over a critical access facility opens up some more options for SMH. “... We’re just so limited because some of the things that I would want to do, we can’t get anymore. It just opens up a few more options,” she said. News