We Need Your Help

WE NEED YOUR HELP.

This week, approximately 41% of the rural Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) across the United States, including our hospital, received an unwelcome surprise in the final version of the Federal CARES stimulus funding bill. Many rural hospitals are experiencing lower-than-normal volumes of patients. Lower volumes require fewer staff to care for these patients. Rural hospitals were counting on the “Payroll Protection” component of the CARES bill to keep employees paid while volumes continue to decline during this COVID-19 crisis in our rural areas. The “Payroll Protection” program would allow rural hospitals to continue to pay employees while we “wait” for the COVID-19 to create an influx of patients and a greater demand for staff.

Due to regulation at the Federal Small Business Association (SBA), hospitals that are pseudo-governmental (hospitals funded in part by local tax dollars) entities are not eligible. Even worse, of $100 billion that has been set aside to help hospitals, none of that is dedicated to rural hospitals who desperately need those funds to survive. The “regulation” that is being used to block funds to Critical Access Hospitals is just that, a regulation, not the law itself, and can be changed by the SBA, if desired. Critical Access Hospitals were mentioned explicitly as a target to sustain within Payroll Protection Act, and now 41% of the hospitals are on the outside looking in.

What makes this situation even more urgent, is the enormous role many Critical Access Hospitals can play in supporting the larger hospitals and health systems. Specifically in Colorado, Critical Access Hospitals will be able to take the non-COVID-positive patients from bigger hospitals to free up a much-needed bed for a critically ill patient. This is one of the key strategies to help reduce the stress on the overall healthcare system. If Critical Access Hospitals are forced to drastically reduce services because of a loss of revenue, this will further compound the healthcare crisis.

I urge you to call your Federal Senators, Representatives, and the White House and demand they fix this now. Rural hospitals across the country were already struggling before COVID-19. One hundred twenty-one (121) rural hospitals have closed their doors in the last ten years, with one closing just yesterday due to COVID-19. Today, 1,843 rural hospitals remain open today, and now 25% are on the brink of closure.

Andy Daniels, CEO, MHA, FACHE
Memorial Regional Health

Find Your Representative: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Senator Michael Bennet: www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact

Senator Cory Gardner: www.gardner.senate.gov/contact-cory/email-cory

Congressman Scott Tipton: https://tipton.house.gov/contact/email

White House: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/