Bowie (Texas) Memorial Hospital, a rural hospital that closed in 2015 and in 2020 after a failed reopening, will become a freestanding emergency room and observation center, The Texas Tribune reported March 2.
The new facility will not be eligible for higher Medicare reimbursement rates, as the hospital was closed when the Rural Emergency Hospital program was approved by Congress in 2020. The reopening will be done through a partnership with a Jacksboro, Texas-based health system.
Rural hospitals across the country are turning to freestanding emergency rooms as a way to continue services in a community that they say cannot support a full-service hospital.
UPMC Lock Haven (Pa.) hospital recently announced plans to transition to an outpatient emergency department.