Nevada Rural Hospital Flexibility Program

The Nevada Rural Hospital Flexibility Program or “Nevada Flex Program” was established in 1999. The program is administered by the Nevada Office of Rural Health based at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. The Nevada Flex Program is supported by funding from the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program, which was authorized by section 4201 of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

Overseen by the federal Office of Rural Health Policy, the national Flex program administers grants to 45 states currently eligible for program funding. The general aims of state programs and authorizing legislation are to assist eligible hospitals and their communities to ascertain the benefit or feasibility of conversion to cost-based Critical Access Hospital (CAH) status, assist facilities with the CAH survey and designation process, enable CAH and CAH-eligible facilities develop networks to ensure financial viability and ensure access across the continuum of care, facilitate Emergency Medical Services integration for hospitals and rural communities, and improve the financial performance and quality of care delivered in those hospitals. As of March 2009, nearly 1,300 rural and frontier hospitals in the United States have been certified as CAHs.

To date, the Nevada Office of Rural Health has received over $4.3 million in funding from the ORHP to implement Flex program activities in Nevada. Ten hospitals in Nevada have been certified by CMS as Critical Access Hospitals and over 40 rural and frontier communities in Nevada have received technical assistance from the Nevada Flex Program. In general, with Flex funding, the Nevada Flex Program and its partners have been able to establish an effective, statewide technical and financial assistance center for small rural hospitals and communities that simply did not exist prior to the existence of the Nevada Flex Program.

For more information on the Nevada Flex Program, please contact Dr. John Packham in the Nevada Flex Program office at (775) 784-1235 or jpackham@medicine.nevada.edu.