Hospitals / Clinics Are Continuing To Close In Rural Areas

The following is from Axios.com: 

A string of recent rural health clinic closures is threatening to further reduce access to care in outlying areas as health systems brace for cuts in the in the Republican budget law and grapple with inflation and workforce issues.

The big picture: Rural health cutbacks already are a fact of life. But some of the latest closures are in anticipation of the nearly $1 trillion reduction in federal Medicaid spending that will in large part hit starting in 2027.

State of play: Three health clinics in rural Virginia will be consolidated and patient care moved to other facilities, Augusta Medical Group announced last week.

 

• The change is "part of Augusta Health's ongoing response to the One Big Beautiful Bill Actand the resulting realities for healthcare delivery," the provider said. 
• Curtis Medical Center in Nebraska, the first health provider to cite Medicaid changes as a reason for closing, will shut its doors on Sept. 30, per the Washington Post.
• At least three rural health centers in Maine have announced plans to close this month, Portland's WMTW reported.
• Mayo Clinic last week said it's closing six clinics in southern Minnesota, including in rural towns, and reducing services at a hospital in the area, although a spokesperson told Axios the transition isn't tied to the new law.

Zoom out: Nearly 200 rural hospitals have closed or ended inpatient services over the past two decades, far outpacing expansions or facility openings.

• Almost half of rural hospitals operated at a loss in 2023, according to the American Hospital Association. 
• "Rural hospital financing has not worked well for a long time," said Carrie Cochran-McClain, chief policy officer for the National Rural Health Association.

The tax and spending package Congress passed in July is widely expected to add to the financial difficulties in rural areas, where patients are often poorer and older and where there are fewer private coverage options. 

• Federal Medicaid spending in rural areas could decrease by $137 billion over the next decade, KFF estimates.
• The law established a $50 billion rural health transformation fund to be doled out to states over five years, in part to assuage Republican lawmakers' concerns about how Medicaid cuts would hit providers. 
• The size of the fund has been panned as inadequate. That, and ambiguity over how funds would be distributed, is raising concerns about whether funds will reach the hospitals that need it most.