A bill to provide that certain rural hospitals shall be exempt for a period of 18 months from the requirements and provisions of title XI of the Social Security Act relating to professional standards review organizations, and from the 1972 amendments to title XVIII, XIX, and V of such act (and the recently approved regulations relating thereto) on utilization review and utilization control under the medicare, medicaid, and maternal and child health programs; and to provide for a 6-month study of alternative methods of utilization review and utilization control for such hospitals.

[AI summary unavailable — showing source text] Provides that specified rural hospitals shall be exempt for a period of 18 months from the requirements and provisions of Title XI of the Social Security Act relating to the establishment of professional standards review organizations and from the provisions of such Act and the regulations governing utilization review and utilization control procedures under the medicare, medicaid, and maternal and child health programs. Directs the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to investigate alternative methods of utilization review and control for rural hospitals. Defines "rural hospitals" for purposes of this Act as meaning a hospital which is located in a community having a population of less than 50,000, but only if: (1) there is no other is no other community which has a population of fifty thousand or more within a ten-mile radius of such hospital; (2) the combined average patient load for all hospitals within such ten-mile radius is less than forty per day; and (3) the number of practicing physicians on the regular staff of such hospital does not exceed seven.…