Sheridan Memorial Hospital Hopeful To Receive Funds From Big Beautiful Bill

The Sheridan Memorial Hospital is attempting to get some of the funding that will be provided to rural hospitals under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Part of the Act establishes a Rural Health Transformation Program which appropriates $10-billion per Federal Fiscal Year between 2026 and 2030, to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to distribute to eligible states.

The new Federal Fiscal Year begins on the first of October, prior to the Calendar New Year. 

States must submit an application to the CMS by the end of this calendar year that includes a detailed rural health transformation plan and a certification that includes specifics on the expenditure for the funding under the program.

States selected for funding are determined by that state’s rural population, the number of rural health facilities and an analysis of the state hospitals.

Sheridan Memorial Hospital CEO Mike McCafferty provides more details.

“At high level they’ve identified that the first $25 billion will be allocated to all 50 states, so that all 50 states would get around $100 million a year for 5 years, and then the second $25 billion is going to be identified within a final rule that CMS is putting together. Hopefully there’s going to be some funds available to assist in supporting rural health care in new and different ways.”

McCafferty says the hospital is currently doing things that line up with a number of strategic categories within the BBB, such as innovation and care, technology, behavioral health and workforce development to name a few.

Critics of the BBB point out that the bill cuts more than $1-trillion from health programs resulting in an estimated 10-million people losing their health care coverage and that it adds at least $3.4 trillion to the national debt.

It could also potentially reduce Medicare funding by up to $500 billion between 2026 and 2034.