{"id":6474,"date":"2017-03-24T18:55:39","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T18:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6474"},"modified":"2017-03-24T18:55:39","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T18:55:39","slug":"report-texas-rural-health-care-faces-funding-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6474","title":{"rendered":"Report: Texas Rural Health Care Faces Funding Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Poor<\/a>

Poor reimbursement rates have forced 16 rural hospitals in Texas to close their doors since 2013. Photo: highwaystarz\/iStockphoto<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas<\/strong> \u2013 A new report warns that rural hospitals in Texas could be hit hardest<\/a> under a Congressional plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n

It found that proposed funding cuts to the Medicaid program, which already is operating at a minimal level in Texas, could force many rural hospitals to close, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without reasonable access to health care.<\/p>\n

David Pearson, director of the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals, which produced the study, said a new round of funding cuts could devastate the state\u2019s already challenged rural health-care system.<\/p>\n

\u201cContinual reduction in reimbursements and available financial resources, either at the state or the federal level, have just gotten to the point where a lot of small hospitals are unsustainable,\u201d said Pearson. \u201cThey don\u2019t have the local tax support to make up that difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the report, the state\u2019s rural health-care system faces declining reimbursement rates along with rising health-care costs, and Texas already has the highest uninsured rate in the United States.<\/p>\n

When Texas lawmakers did not expand Medicaid under the ACA, Pearson said, it put dozens of rural hospitals on the critical list.<\/p>\n

He said 16 rural hospitals in Texas have closed since 2013, with an increasing number in financial distress. Pearson also explained that a proposed plan to fund Medicaid through block grants would only shift the financial burden of rural health care to those who can least afford it.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal governments and\/or local tax districts already fund a large share of Medicaid,\u201d he said. \u201cThe tax base in a rural area just isn\u2019t large enough to be able to generate the kind of revenue that would be needed to offset that reduction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearson said when a rural hospital closes, it creates a damaging ripple effect in the local economy. He added that Texas isn\u2019t the only state facing a rural health-care crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis really is a national crisis,\u201d he warned. \u201cUnfortunately, Texas leads the way as far as the number of closures, but closures across the country in rural areas are really starting to add up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report, which was completed before the Republicans\u2019 current American Health Care Act was released, was sponsored by the nonprofit Episcopal Health Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 A new report warns that rural hospitals in Texas could be hit hardest under a Congressional plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. It found that proposed funding cuts to the Medicaid program, which already is operating at a minimal level in Texas, could force many rural […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6477,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6474\/revisions\/6477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}