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Klobuchar, Oberstar Seek Permanent Solution for Cass County Hospital

Lawmakers welcome CMS ruling but say Cass County deserves action in Congress

January 30, 2008

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar and Congressman Jim Oberstar welcomed a federal rule change today that will allow Cass County to get a new emergency hospital.  But they said the decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is not a permanent solution and that they will continue working in Congress to ensure that the Cass County hospital project will have critical access hospital (CAH) designation.

Cass is one of only three Minnesota counties without an emergency-access hospital.  Residents of north-central Cass County have to travel up to an hour or more to hospitals in Bemidji, Park Rapids, Deer River, Crosby, Staples or Brainerd to seek urgent care in emergency rooms.

“High quality health care is crucial to the quality of life and the economic development of our rural communities,’’ Klobuchar said. “Wherever they live in our state, Minnesotans should have safe, speedy access to a good hospital.’’

In 2006, the Cass County Health Task Force worked with state, county, and local officials to transform the Ah-Gwah-Ching long-term care facility into an integrated medical campus that would include a 25-bed critical access hospital (CAH).  However, a federal rule required emergency hospitals to be spaced at least 35 miles apart.  Because the Ah-Gwah-Ching facility is 31.9 miles from Park Rapids, it was not eligible for CAH status. Hospitals with critical access status from CMS are eligible for full Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, an important source of revenue.

Oberstar and Klobuchar, along with Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, have introduced legislation to grant the CAH status to Ah-Gwah-Ching.  Meanwhile, Cass County and the Minnesota Department of Health Health requested that CMS reexamine Ah-Gwah-Ching’s eligibility under new CAH  rules. 

On Monday, CMS announced that Cass County is eligible to apply for CAH status after all. 

Although the rules change allows Cass County to move forward with its hospital project, Oberstar and Klobuchar say they will continue to push their legislation to ensure the Ah-Gwah-Ching facility cannot lose its CAH status.

 “What bureaucrats giveth, bureaucrats can taketh away,” said Oberstar. “While I am very pleased to see this positive development, we must change the federal law to make 100 percent certain that this hospital project can proceed with CAH eligibility. I want to commend the Minnesota Department of Health and the Cass County Health Task Force for their determined efforts to advance this essential health care initiative.,”