With an increase in governmental programs for Medicare and Medicaid, OSF Holy Family and Saint Mary’s Medical Center President and CEO Lisa DeKezel reports those patients are a large majority of their payer population for services over commercial payers, which in return create some challenges for rural healthcare:
“The challenges that brings, more so than anything, as you watch even in the political landscape and you watch the changes that are occurring around healthcare, those politics definitely impact reimbursement, the way we are supported to provide those vital services to our patients in our communities, and those are the things that help us to continue to provide those core hospital services as well. When you think about your inpatient services, your emergency department services, those are those core elements in community hospitals that are vital Without those, you risk closure of your rural hospitals without solid support of those programs.”
DeKezel states that from 2010 to 2022, 139 rural hospitals have closed across the United States.
