DENVER — Several hospital CEOs are coming together to try and save rural hospitals across the state of Colorado. These are hospitals that serve huge swaths of the state but are historically tight on cash and resources.
Now, the leaders of these hospitals say the situation has only gotten more stressful.
“Our motto is where you live shouldn’t decide if you live,” Kevin Stansbury, the CEO of Lincoln Health in Hugo, said.
Hugo is about 90 miles away from the eastern edge of Denver and roughly 90 miles away from Burlington. Stansbury said in between there aren’t any other hospitals.
“We did kind of an informal survey in a couple of meetings, and we asked people in the room, generally rural audiences, 'How far do you travel now for emergency services or for even primary care?'” Stansbury said. “The average is about 35 to 40 miles in many instances. Then the next question is, 'What happens if your hospital closes? How far do you have to travel then?' And often, the answer was 100 miles or more. So that's the reality.”
Rural hospitals historically operate with slim margins, but Stansbury said it’s gotten worse since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Payroll, medication and supply costs have all gone up, while reimbursement rates remain flat or declining.
They’re also closely watching what both the federal government and state lawmakers decide when it comes to budgets and Medicaid.
“Rural hospitals are going to see a higher percentage of Medicare and Medicaid patients,” Stansbury said. “So in my case, it's about 70% of my patients are either Medicaid or Medicare.”
On top of that, in the past, legislation coming out of the Colorado General Assembly was sporadic. That’s why this legislative session, rural hospital leaders are working to start building out more comprehensive support, including asking for a study to figure out how much money they would need for capital investments.
“We worked with a young graduate student from Duke University who did a study at the rural hospitals in the state and asked them what capital needs they have to invest in their buildings and new equipment,” Stansbury said. “And the number came up to show a little bit less than $500 million. It's a big number. We are actually think that numbers are much larger than that.”
This would be money spent on everything from buying more beds, to investing to building new hospitals.
The Hill-Burton Act helped build out rural hospitals, but it was the most active in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
“Most of those buildings that were built with Hill Burton money are now 50, 60, 70, years old,” Stansbury said. “And they haven't had the reinvestment because rural hospitals tend to run at a very narrow margin.”
In the meantime, some rural hospitals are starting to eliminate services, including OB care. That means patients are traveling even farther to see a doctor.
The proposed legislation, to study how much funding would be needed to help rural hospitals, is set to be discussed again Monday. However, some are already questioning if it will actually help address the issues rural hospitals are facing and where the money will come from to fund these projects.
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