Cash-Strapped Rural Hospitals Already On Financial Brink See GOP Bill As Potential Last Straw
Rural hospitals would be hit especially hard by the legislation, which would increase the uninsured, boost deductibles for patients or threaten already shrinking Medicare payments.
Modern Healthcare:
Rural Hospitals See Graham-Cassidy As Latest Threat To Survival
Leaders of cash-strapped rural hospitals worry that the latest proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act could destroy them. With higher rates of Medicaid patients than their urban counterparts, rural hospitals would be disproportionately hurt by an end of the Medicaid expansion proposed in the so-called Graham-Cassidy Senate bill, said Maggie Elehwany, vice president of government affairs at the National Rural Health Association. (Barkholz, 9/21)
Meanwhile —
Georgia Health News:
A Hospital Crisis Is Killing Rural Communities. This State Is ‘Ground Zero'
Since 2010, 82 rural hospitals have closed nationwide. As many as 700 more are at risk of closing within the next 10 years, according to Alan Morgan, the CEO of the National Rural Health Association, a nonprofit professional organization that lobbies on rural health issues. (Weber and Miller, 9/22)
Stat:
Without Congressional Action, Hospital Payments At Risk Of Expiring
Drive around this city long enough, and you’ll see the billboards that have become a staple of the skyline. They read: Atlanta can’t live without Grady. For many here, that’s indeed the case. Grady Memorial Hospital, a safety net hospital with more than 950 beds, is where people go if they come down with the flu or if they suffer a gunshot wound, but can’t afford care anywhere else. (Blau, 9/22)
