To participate in Georgia HEART, a hospital must be a “rural hospital organization.”
The term “rural hospital organization” includes an acute care hospital licensed by the Georgia Department of Community Health (“DCH”) that meets the following requirements:
- A) Provides inpatient hospital services at a facility located in a rural county or is a critical access hospital;
- B) Participates in both Medicaid and medicare and accepts both Medicaid and medicare patients;
- C) Provides health care services to indigent patients;
- D) Has at least 10 percent of its annual net revenue categorized as indigent care, charity care, or bad debt;
- E) Annually files IRS Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax, with the department or for any hospital not required to file IRS Form 990, the department will provide a form that collects the same information to be submitted to the department on an annual basis;
- F) Is operated by a county or municipal authority pursuant to Article 4 of Chapter 7 of Georgia Code Title 31 or is designated as a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; and
- G) Is current with all audits and reports required by law.
- H) Has a three-year average patient margin, as a percent of expense, less than one standard deviation above the state-wide three-year average of organizations defined in subparagraphs (A) through (G) of this paragraph, as calculated by the department. For purposes of this subparagraph, the term "patient margin" means gross patient revenues less contractual adjustments, bad debt, indigent and charity care, other uncompensated care, and total expenses.
A “critical access hospital” means a hospital that meets the requirements of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to be designated as a critical access hospital and that is recognized by the DCH as a critical access hospital for purposes of Medicaid.