Medicare Part A Rural Health Care Stability Amendments of 1987

Medicare Part A Rural Health Care Stability Amendments of 1987 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to permit a rural hospital with less than 150 beds to furnish extended care services. (Currently, rural hospitals must have less than 50 beds to furnish such services.) Prohibits the making of Medicare payments to hospitals with more than 49 beds for extended care services: (1) which a patient receives after a bed has been available for five days in a skilled nursing facility located within the same region as the hospital, unless the patient's physician certifies that transferring the patient to such facility is medically inappropriate; and (2) to the extent such services utilize more than 15 percent of the bedspace over a cost reporting period.

Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to report to the Congress by February 1989 concerning: (1) the proportion of hospital admissions for extended care services which are denied or approved by a peer review organization; and (2) methods of encouraging eligible hospitals that have a low occupancy rate and are located in areas in need of extended care service providers to enter into agreements with the Secretary to provide such services.

Requires that whenever the Secretary proposes a regulation or promulgates a final version of a regulation under the Medicare program or part B (Peer Review) of title XI of the Act which will have a significant impact on payment under part A (Hospital Insurance) of the Medicare program for rural health care, the Secretary make a regulatory impact analysis available to the public.

Extends, through FY 1989, the provision of additional payments to sole community hospitals experiencing a decrease of more than five percent in patient volume for a cost reporting period due to circumstances beyond their control.

Requires the Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration to establish a study of the criteria used for classifying hospitals as rural referral centers which includes an examination of the extent to which such centers receive more or less than their actual costs of providing inpatient hospital services. Directs the Administrator to report to the Congress by March 1989 regarding such study.

Directs the Secretary to establish three-year demonstration projects to determine appropriate methods of strengthening the financial and managerial capability of isolated and financially distressed rural hospitals to provide necessary health care services. Sets forth reporting requirements.