Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant Program

The program was established per Iowa Code 135M.4 and Iowa Administrative Rule (Chapter 109) .

In March, 2011 the Iowa State Office of Rural Health (SORH) conducted a survey to determine to value of the Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP) in Iowa.

Survey Results

Purpose

The Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant Program (SHIP) is a federally funded program through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Office of Rural Health Policy. The federal grant provides additional resources to small rural hospitals to:

Implementation of Prospective Payment Systems (PPS)
Value-based purchasing programs (VBP)
Accountable care organizations (ACOs); and
The national pilot program on payment bundling.

Eligibility:

For the purpose of this program.

"small" is defined as 49 available beds or less, as reported on the hospital's most recently filed Medicare Cost report,
"rural" is defined as located outside a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA); or located in a rural census tract of a MSA as determined under the Goldsmith Modification or the Rural Urban Commuting Areas (RUCAs) and
"hospital" is defined as non-federal, short-term, general acute care facility.

Grant Awards:

Iowa received a notice of grant award for $726,665.00 for 2010-2011. Fifteen percent of the award is allowed for administrative costs and the remaining will be divided equally among the 83 eligible hospitals that applied. Each eligible hospital will receive $7405.00.

Additional Resources:

Contact Information:

Iowa Small Hospital Improvement Program
Iowa Dept of Public Health
321 East 12 St., 4th fl. Lucas Bldg
Des Moines, IA 50319
(515) 233-2831
FAX (515) 242-6384