Cheboygan Memorial Hospital has been designated as a Medicare Critical Access Hospital, meaning federal reimbursements are intended to improve its financial performance, a move designed to reduce hospital closures. The designation was announced September 1 and comes from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. A hospital with this designation is certified to receive cost-based reimbursement from Medicare services.

“Critical Access will be a positive move for our organization,” said Carolyn Riley, the Cheboygan hospital’s interim president and CEO. “We will now be reimbursed cost plus one percent for our Medicare patients. This is key for many rural hospitals like us that are facing extreme financial challenges.”

Critical access is a designation by the federal government that recognizes rural hospitals as being “critical” in meeting the healthcare needs of the local community, so it raises the Medicare reimbursement to cover the cost of providing medically necessary services. Mackinac Straits Health System in St. Ignace operates under the same designation.

Some of the criteria for receiving the designation include providing 24-hour emergency services, having a maximum of 25 acute care inpatient beds, and completing a separate Joint Commission Survey. The Cheboygan hospital’s inpatient census has consistently been below 25 for the past several years.

The Cheboygan hospital is now one of 36 Critical Access Hospitals in Michigan.