NEWS

Hardy introduces Rural HEALTH Act

Bill aims to prevent closures of rural hospitals

Lucas M Thomas
lthomas@dvtnv.com

In an effort to preserve the services of rural hospitals across America, Rep. Cresent Hardy introduced legislation last week aimed to provide resources to hospitals at risk of closure.

The Mesquite Republican joined Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Alabama) to introduce the Rural Health Enhancement and Long Term Health Act (HEALTH).

On the heels of the closure of the Nye Regional Medical Center in Tonopah last August, Hardy found that "more than 30% of America's rural hospitals are vulnerable to conditions that have caused the closure of 71 facilities since 2010," according to a press release.

Rep. Cresent Hardy (R-Nevada) signs the Rural HEALTH Act of 2016 last week.

"Rural hospitals have a very limited market so they don’t have the kind of volume that you would see in urban hospitals, yet they're a necessary provider because there's nobody else," said Thomas Maher, CEO of Boulder City Hospital.

The bipartisan legislation has the support of Republicans and Democrats alike.

"Finding [support] from across the aisle was not difficult," Hardy's communications director Jacob Fullmer told the Desert Valley Times. He added that increased budget concerns appear to be the only potential point of contention in the bill.

The bill is a proposed three-pronged solution to issues facing rural hospitals, including Mesa View Regional Hospital in Mesquite, which could not be reached for comment.

First, the bill requires that the Department of Health and Human Services resume submitting an annual report on the state of rural hospitals to Congress and the State Office of Rural Health (SORH) in each state.

The DHHS has not released a report on the nation's rural healthcare system in more than a decade -- an annual practice that had been going on for nearly three decades before ending in 2003.

"As time went on, they stopped paying attention to it, reports that were coming out on state of rural health care became more and more infrequent," said Fullmer.

With this legislation, DHHS would be required to file that annual report and would include the number of rural hospital closures as well as the reasons for those closures.

Maher said cost reimbursement is among the biggest challenges he faces. Rural hospitals receive reimbursement for unpaid costs from commercial insurance companies who treat rural hospitals the same way they would treat a large urban hospital in an urban market, something he said is "not possible in a rural market."

"One of the things we strive for, especially in Nevada where we're seeing an increase in privately managed Medicaid, is we want to make sure those companies will pay us costs as well," he said. "Otherwise they're going to impose a very timid fee schedule that’s not going to come close to our costs of providing services."

In Nevada, half of the state's 14 rural hospitals exhibit characteristics that were present in the closure of 71 hospitals over the past six years, Fullmer said. The Silver State's other rural hospitals are located in Battle Mountain, Boulder City, Caliente, Elko, Ely, Fallon, Gardnerville, Hawthorne, Incline Village, ​Lovelock, Pahrump, Winnemucca and Yerington.

Second, the bill allows for the federal government to match any private investment, dollar-for-dollar, up to $100,000, which Fullmer said "incentivizes entities to invest dollars in 'in need' communities to build new facilities or improve upon existing facilities."

Maher expressed a need for the latter, noting that the average age of plant for rural hospitals in Nevada is among the oldest in the country.

"We’re in sore need of updating and remodeling to make them more aligned with what you see in current construction," he said.

Lastly, the bill reauthorizes the SORH Grant Program for $15 million annually — a $5 million increase from the $10 million that was previously allocated in the program.

The grant allows for state offices of rural health to use funding to provide research, funding, and feasibility reports to hospitals that are seeking to expand services. It also allows SORH to provide money to hospitals that are struggling financially.

If that money had been available to offer those services, Fullmer said, the Nye Regional Medical Center may have been able to prevent closure.

"From what I understand the bill will help with some of the specific needs of the facility," Maher said. "What I would like to see is grant money like that for general operational purposes."

Follow Lucas Thomas on Twitter, @LucasThomas14, or call him at 702-232-0603.

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