Health News
- Ky. Rural Health Assn. Names State Auditor Adam Edelen "rural Health Champion" For Report On Finances Of Rural Hospitals
State Auditor Adam EdelenThe Kentucky Rural Health Association has named state Auditor Adam Edelen its first ?Kentucky Rural Health Champion? for his special examination of the financial strength of 44 of the state?s 66 rural hospitals. Edelen found that...
- Public Hearing To Be Held In Bowling Green Sept .19 To Discuss Fiscal Health Of Kentucky's Rural Hospitals
On Sept. 19 in Bowling Green, state Auditor of Public Accounts Adam Edelen will hold the last of 11 public hearings, which have been held across Kentucky this summer, to talk about the financial health of rural hospitals. These hearings, along with a...
- Older Rural Residents Are More Likely To Seek Care At Rural Hospitals, National Study Finds
Rural hospitals are more likely to serve older patients seeking hospitalization, while younger rural residents seek medical care in urban areas, says a study by the National Center for Health Statistics at the federal Centers for Disease Control....
- As Edelen Begins Hearings On Rural Hospitals' Finances, State Gives Figures On Medicaid Expansion And Reimbursement
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News The expansion of the federal-state Medicaid program funneled $284 million to Kentucky health-care providers in the first quarter of the year, the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services says in a report prepared for...
- Lame-duck Congress Could Cut Funding For Critical Access Hospitals; More Than Two Dozen In Kentucky
Critical access hospitals, which in most states are rural facilities with fewer than 25 beds, may be under attack in the lame-duck session of Congress, former national rural-health director Wayne Myers writes for the Daily Yonder. President Obama's...
Health News
Fate of rural hospitals rests in the hands of community members, writes publisher of weekly Crittenden Press in Marion
Just like country grocery stores in rural areas often have to close because community members drive past them to chain stores to save a few cents, rural hospitals will also suffer and eventually disappear if citizens do not use them, Publisher Chris Evans writes for The Crittenden Press in Marion.
When Evans was growing up in northwest Tennessee, his grandparents had to close their grocery store, which had been the center of the community, because too many people chose to purchase their food and other items from the new Walmart eight miles down the road. "Our rural hospitals are headed down the same path of extinction unless we recognize and reverse the trend," Evans writes.
Charlie Hunt, volunteer chairman of Crittenden Health Systems, which owns the local hospital, told Evans, "The only way for rural hospitals to survive is through community support."
In Kentucky, one-quarter of the 66 rural hospitals are in danger of closing, according to state Auditor Adam Edelen. In general, "Country hospitals do not have a good record for making money or breaking even, for that matter," Evans writes in a front-page column for the weekly he and his wife own.
Based on the results of Obamacare, Evans opines, it appears that America is moving toward a single-payer health care system like Canada's. Then instead of the government paying for 85 percent of Crittenden Hospital's services, it will pay for 100 percent. "When that happens, hospitals will have to play solely by government rules or get completely out of the game," Evans writes. Most of the 50 rural hospitals that have been shuttered in the past few years have been in the rural South.
"Hunt, who chairs the board, said that approximately 10 percent of the future of this hospital rests in the hands of its leaders. The other 90 percent falls squarely on the shoulders of this community," Evans writes. The column is not online, but PDFs of the pages on which it appears are posted here.
- Ky. Rural Health Assn. Names State Auditor Adam Edelen "rural Health Champion" For Report On Finances Of Rural Hospitals
State Auditor Adam EdelenThe Kentucky Rural Health Association has named state Auditor Adam Edelen its first ?Kentucky Rural Health Champion? for his special examination of the financial strength of 44 of the state?s 66 rural hospitals. Edelen found that...
- Public Hearing To Be Held In Bowling Green Sept .19 To Discuss Fiscal Health Of Kentucky's Rural Hospitals
On Sept. 19 in Bowling Green, state Auditor of Public Accounts Adam Edelen will hold the last of 11 public hearings, which have been held across Kentucky this summer, to talk about the financial health of rural hospitals. These hearings, along with a...
- Older Rural Residents Are More Likely To Seek Care At Rural Hospitals, National Study Finds
Rural hospitals are more likely to serve older patients seeking hospitalization, while younger rural residents seek medical care in urban areas, says a study by the National Center for Health Statistics at the federal Centers for Disease Control....
- As Edelen Begins Hearings On Rural Hospitals' Finances, State Gives Figures On Medicaid Expansion And Reimbursement
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News The expansion of the federal-state Medicaid program funneled $284 million to Kentucky health-care providers in the first quarter of the year, the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services says in a report prepared for...
- Lame-duck Congress Could Cut Funding For Critical Access Hospitals; More Than Two Dozen In Kentucky
Critical access hospitals, which in most states are rural facilities with fewer than 25 beds, may be under attack in the lame-duck session of Congress, former national rural-health director Wayne Myers writes for the Daily Yonder. President Obama's...