Governor Deal's bandaid for hemorrhaging rural hospitals

After acknowledging the failure of Governor Deal's plan to convert rural hospitals to stand-alone emergency departments, the Rural Hospitalization Stabilization Committee has announced this year's new bandaid: a $3 million telemedicine pilot to link school nurses and EMTs to 4 locations that can still afford to have physicians and hospitals.

The RHSC report proposes that little to nothing be done to ensure lifesaving medical access for rural Georgians served by hospitals teetering on financial collapse.

The committee did acknowledge that rural hospitals are in a precarious state:

The Committee heard testimony that four rural hospitals have closed in recent months with total of eight having closed or attempted to reconfigure in last two to three years. Additionally, fifteen rural hospitals are considered financially fragile, with six operating on a day-to-day basis.

Governor Deal and the Georgia GOP refuse to consider a federally-funded expansion of Medicaid, while Georgia hospitals--particularly those in rural Georgia--are facing huge costs for reimbursed care:

• Phoebe Putney Health System of Albany-Dougherty County reported "$76 million in charges foregone and $28 million in estimated unreimbursed costs in 2014."
• In FY2014 Floyd Medical Center provided $64.9 million in unreimbursed care: $28.1 million of indigent charity care, $12.4 million in unreimbursed Medicaid, and $24.4 million in unreimbursed Medicare,
• South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta reported $52 million in indigent and unreimbursed costs for 2013--up substantially from $44 million in 2012.

What is the result of the obstinacy of the governor and the Georgia GOP? A February 2015 Gallup poll marks Georgia with the second highest uninsured rate in the nation at 19.1%. Arkansas and Kentucky expanded Medicaid and led the nation in reduction of uninsured, with Arkansas dropping from 22.5% to 11.4% uninsured and Kentucky from 20.4 to 9.8% uninsured (Largely rural states that didn't expand Medicaid have highest number of uninsured residents).

The RHSC telemedicine pilot is a diversion--not a solution. It will not preserve access to healthcare for rural Georgians. Accepting the expansion of Medicaid would provide essential medical coverage for 288,000 Georgians, vastly improve the viability of rural hospitals, and provide $33 billion in increased federal funding to the state over the next 10 years (at a cost to the state of $35 million per year, according to GBPI). The grim reality is that hundreds of Georgians will die prematurely and needlessly if our state continues to adhere to this governor's failed vision for healthcare in Georgia.

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Final note, as I worked on this post I found Jay Bookman's excellent post, Georgia Abandons its Rural Hospitals.  Jay makes a superb case for expansion in his post.