Subcommittee advances bill letting critical-access hospitals average swing-bed limit

A House subcommittee on Thursday reported House Bill 1552 as a substitute, voting 6-0 to allow critical-access hospitals to calculate the state’s 10-bed limit for “swing beds” as an average over a hospital’s fiscal year rather than as a strict daily cap.

The substitute, introduced by Delegate Wiley, lets eligible hospitals average up to 10 swing beds across a fiscal year and includes guardrails for temporary increases. Under the substitute, a hospital may not operate more than 15 swing beds at any one time for five consecutive days; if a hospital’s fiscal-year average exceeds 10 swing beds, it will have one subsequent fiscal year to reduce its average to 10 or below. If the hospital does not meet the average over two years, it…