From Modern Healthcare:
Rural hospitals are weighing which services to cut if lawmakers do not boost Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and streamline pay processes, CEOs said.
Half of rural hospitals were operating in the red last year, up from 43% in 2022, according to a February report from the consulting firm Chartis Center for Rural Health. As a result, a growing number of providers in rural communities are slashing obstetric and chemotherapy services, among others, the report found.
Siri Nelson, CEO of Marshall Medical Center in Placerville, California
More than 80% of our net revenue comes from either Medicare or Medicaid, which do not cover the cost of care. If the federal government could stop cutting our Medicare reimbursement, that would be great.
Our cost for electricity service has more than doubled in a year. The [hospital market basket updates] do not even come close to inflation. 340B, the Medi-Cal hospital fee program, specialty pharmacy [reimbursement]—if any of those supplemental payment programs are in danger, we are going to have to have a serious conversation about reducing services.
Last year alone, Marshall wrote off more than $5 million in charges for surgical care that we did not get prior authorization for in time. We can’t keep doing that. Payer accountability is a huge issue for us. All we want is when we sign a contract, just pay us based on the contract we signed. We signed a contract with a big payer, and it has been over two years — we are still not getting paid correctly for all of our physician fees.
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