Transfusion of cash to save rural hospitals
A small hospital in rural southwest Georgia has received a financial shot in the arm under a new federal program that could help save many small, struggling hospitals. Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center in Cuthbert was the first rural hospital in the state to gain federal designation as a "critical access" hospital.
The hospital will get an additional $180,000 to $200,000 in reimbursement annually from Medicare, enough to help ensure its long-term survival. The program will allow Southwest Georgia Regional to receive full reimbursement for the cost of services rendered to Medicare patients.
Usually, Medicare pays a fixed fee for each diagnosis or procedure, which is often below a hospital’s costs. Southwest Georgia Regional, about 40 miles west of Albany, "has lost upward of $400,000 for the last five years,’’ said Keith Petersen, chief executive officer. "This program and other things will enable us to get into the black."
Hospital survival has become an urgent issue for rural leaders after a series of Medicare and Medicaid cutbacks. Rural hospitals serve a high percentage of Medicare and Medicaid patients, along with a large load of uninsured, or nonpaying, patients and low numbers of the privately insured.
A North Carolina hospital also has won "critical access" funding, and six other rural Georgia hospitals are applying. "This is not going to solve the health care crisis in rural Georgia, but it’s a piece of the puzzle," said John Robitscher, director of the state Office of Rural Health.
To seek the designation, rural hospitals must be publicly owned or nonprofit. In addition, a hospital can’t operate more than 25 beds or keep a patient longer than four days without a waiver. Rural hospitals must partner with a larger hospital where long-term patients can be referred. It must be declared by the state a necessary rural provider. Georgia has a list of 47 such hospitals.
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