Free Republic

The Trump administration on Monday doled out billions to states from a fund Congress created to “transform” rural health care. The funds, however, will be lavished more generously on small states and states that adopt administration friendly policies. “The purpose of this $50 billion investment in rural health care is not to pay off the bills,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told reporters Monday. “The purpose of this $50 billion investment is to allow us to rightsize the system and to deal with the fundamental hindrances of improvement in rural health care.” Over...

More than 100 rural hospitals have closed in the United States over the last decade, leaving millions of Americans without access to emergency services, testing, inpatient care, and primary care. While these closures have been on the rise in rural America since the 2008-2009 recession, they’ve increased at an alarming pace over the last few years, including at least 18 that closed or converted to an operating model that excludes inpatient care this year alone. Currently, more than 700 rural hospitals are at risk of closing—with 300 at immediate risk of closing—meaning that this distance is likely to widen even...

Glenn Medical Center in Willows closed Oct. 21 after losing “critical access” status for being 3 miles closer to the nearest hospital than rules require. The closure strips emergency care from a poor farming community, eliminates 150 jobs and puts rural residents at risk of preventable deaths. Many other California hospitals also face risks of closing because of federal healthcare cuts affecting cash-strapped rural healthcare systems. These are questions that elected officials and policymakers may soon be confronting in rural communities across California and the nation. Cuts to Medicaid funding and the Affordable Care Act are likely to roll down...

Rural hospitals have a new option to get millions of dollars in additional funding from Medicare if they agree to drop all inpatient care — but so far Colorado health care facilities aren’t jumping to take the money. Under the federal program, rural emergency hospitals must keep an emergency room staffed around the clock, but can’t offer inpatient beds. In exchange, they get extra payments, estimated to average around $3 million a year, to support outpatient and emergency care. It’s a drastic trade-off, but one that, in Colorado, would require regulatory and legislative action before any hospitals could take advantage...

There has been a lot of southern news about closing of rural hospitals. An unidentified personal source (I swear to God - you'll see) has told me that at his hospital facility, ABC News has sent the above referenced reporter out to do interviews, and that the report will air this Sunday on George Stephanopolous's show. The interviews are not being conducted at only one hospital in one state. That's all I know. I don't have all the details, but I have seen several local news stories lately about the closure of rural hospitals over the past several years. Watch...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — There are more than 4,700 hospitals in the U.S, spread about evenly between urban and rural areas. But that number has been dwindling. More than 100 hospitals have closed since 2010, and the pace has quickened in the past couple of years. Hospitals are closing at about the same rate in urban and rural areas, but health care analysts say the effect often is more pronounced in small towns, where residents typically must travel farther to get to the next nearest hospital. Some answers to common questions about hospital closings:

LEXINGTON — Rural hospitals in Kentucky are facing some of the biggest challenges in their histories and some may be forced to close their doors state auditor Adam Edelen told the Kentucky Chamber on Monday. Edelen, who will be releasing an audit on the plight on the states rural hospitals in January, told members of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce who were attending their annual legislative preview conference, that the difficult economy and managed care are the primary drivers of the difficulty in rural health care. Generally, Medicare reimburses hospitals around 90 percent of cost while Medicaid reimbursement is around...

http://www.usatoday.com/longform/news/nation/2014/11/12/rural-hospital-closings-federal-reimbursement-medicaid-aca/18532471/