Cochran & Wicker Fight to Protect Rural Hospitals in MS

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have issued a rule to require physicians at critical access hospitals to certify that a patient will remain hospitalized no longer than four days. Cochran and Wicker hope to overturn this rule through the Critical Access Hospital Relief Act. Stone County Hospital C.E.O., Steven East, agrees with Cochran and Wicker since his hospital would fall under those regulations.

East says, “Critical access hospitals are pretty much the backbone of the past suburban markets, and when you send people out to the larger hospital, you’re taking them away from their home, away from their family.”

There are a total of 32 critical access hospitals in Mississippi that would be affected by this rule.