How does this site not allow us to post gifs yet??
I had the perfect response with a gif
Guessing bc it’s mainly 75 and 80 year olds posting the majority of the time.
Is This the Kiss of Death for Rural Hospitals?
- Thread starter somarco
- Start date
Guessing bc it’s mainly 75 and 80 year olds posting the majority of the time.
- Thread starter
- #12
Hospitals that receive government funding are obligated to admit anyone that has a government health insurance plan. This includes Medicaid and Medicare.
But they are in their right to refuse patients with commercial insurance.
Medicare Advantage growth has had an outsize impact on the finances of small, rural hospitals that Medicare has designated as “critical access.” Under the designation, government-administered Medicare pays extra to those hospitals to compensate for low patient volumes. Medicare Advantage plans, on the other hand, offer negotiated rates that hospital operators say often don’t match those of traditional Medicare.
https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/medicare-advantage-rural-hospitals-financial-pinch/
But they are in their right to refuse patients with commercial insurance.
Medicare Advantage growth has had an outsize impact on the finances of small, rural hospitals that Medicare has designated as “critical access.” Under the designation, government-administered Medicare pays extra to those hospitals to compensate for low patient volumes. Medicare Advantage plans, on the other hand, offer negotiated rates that hospital operators say often don’t match those of traditional Medicare.
https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/medicare-advantage-rural-hospitals-financial-pinch/
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"obligated to admit anyone that has a government health insurance plan. This includes Medicaid and Medicar"
Which Medicaid often pays the least.
Your post also doesn't address the biggest variable, which is low patient volume.
You can keep posting and searching they internet for more and more hit pieces at night. Doesn't change the facts.
Rural hospitals have been struggling for decades. Decades prior to the existence of MAPD.
And, just how does that make the article not factual or true?
True that some rural hospitals have been struggling for a long time. Some even went out of business in the 40s and 50s but that does not mean that there is no possibilty that MA is not a contrubting factor today.
- 2,110
I suppose he could write a song about it but that might be considered disingenuous.
It's more likely that MA is keeping them in business than putting them out of business.
If they did not accept MA the hospitals would have even less customers to cover their already high fixed costs.
And actually, most rural hospitals didn't have issues until the creation of Medicare. It is Medicare itself that inflated healthcare costs.
Medicare and Medicaid is by far the biggest distorter of prices in the healthcare industry. Remove Medicare and Medicaid from the marketplace, and healthcare costs will go down, dragging also the fixed costs of hospitals down
That sounds like a good idea!
- Thread starter
- #19
What is missed in this diatribe is that the losses are factual and presented by hospital CEO's who should know more about the financials than the reporter and even the agents who critique the report.
There are a number of factors that impact a provider's bottom line.
One major item that is not mentioned is the economic impact on Rural communities caused by interstate traffic that bypasses small towns. Motels and restaurants are either overgrown or no longer exist due to lack of foot traffic.
Industry that once flocked to rural America because of low land and labor cost have closed down and outsourced manufacturing overseas. When a major production operation leaves small town workers lose high wages and benefits like health insurance.
When hospitals close there is no incentive for new industry to relocate to those areas.
It's a vicious cycle . . .
And when jobs are lost the young people leave and seek work in larger cities. The majority of citizens left behind are mostly older and sicker which further taxes the health care industry.
Anyone who thinks that MA is like an evil monster preying on the health care system is misdirected. The carriers are run by capitalists that manipulate the system so they can pad their bottom line by squeezing taxpayers and providers.
It's the American way . .
- Thread starter
- #20
That is one of the most ignorant things I have read on this forum in a long time.
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