Rural Health Care Facilities Revitalization Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill amends the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to help rural health care facilities stabilize their finances. Hospitals, behavioral health facilities, health care clinics, mobile health clinics, home health agencies, and long-term care facilities in rural areas may use assistance under section 306(a) community-facility programs or section 310B programs to refinance debt, update telehealth, equipment, or online databases, and support operating expenses or reserve funds. The facility must preserve rural health-service access, meaningfully improve its financial position, and meet Rural Development Agency feasibility and security standards. USDA may waive a section 302(a)(1)(D) requirement when the facility is insolvent or located in a persistent-poverty, socially vulnerable, or distressed area.
Who Benefits and How
Rural hospitals, behavioral health facilities, clinics, home health agencies, long-term care facilities, and rural patients benefit because existing USDA assistance can be used for refinancing, telehealth updates, equipment, databases, operating expenses, and reserves. Insolvent facilities and facilities in persistent-poverty or socially vulnerable areas receive a potential waiver path.
Who Bears the Burden and How
USDA Rural Development administrators must evaluate whether assistance preserves access, improves financial position, and meets feasibility and security requirements. Applicant health care facilities must show that their proposed use satisfies those limits, and the agency must implement the new authority 6 months after enactment.
Key Provisions
- Adds rural health care facilities to allowable uses of USDA community-facility and rural business assistance.
- Authorizes assistance for debt refinancing, telehealth updates, equipment, online databases, operating expenses, and reserve funds.
- Requires assisted facilities to preserve rural health access, improve financial position, and satisfy Rural Development feasibility and security standards.
- Allows USDA to waive a statutory requirement for insolvent facilities or facilities in persistent-poverty, socially vulnerable, or distressed areas.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Allows distressed rural health care facilities to use USDA Rural Development community-facility or business assistance for debt refinancing, telehealth, equipment, databases, operating expenses, and reserves.
Key Policy Areas
Healthcare, Rural Development
Primary Purpose
Allows distressed rural health care facilities to use USDA Rural Development community-facility or business assistance for debt refinancing, telehealth, equipment, databases, operating expenses, and reserves.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Rural hospitals
- Behavioral health facilities
- Rural health care clinics
- Home health agencies
- Long-term care facilities
- Rural patients
Identified Costs
- USDA Rural Development Agency
- Applicant rural health care facilities
- Rural Development loan administrators
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and …
Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.
Introduced in House
Ms. Salinas (for herself, Mr. Moolenaar, Ms. Tokuda, and Mr. …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Behavioral health facilities, Insolvent rural health facilities, Persistent poverty area facilities
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "secretary"
- → Secretary of Agriculture
- "rural_development_agency"
- → USDA Rural Development Agency
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
An area with a poverty rate of 20 percent or more for four roughly decennial time periods spanning about 30 years.
An area with 50,000 or fewer inhabitants that is not an urbanized area adjacent or contiguous to a larger city.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology