Subtitles (32)
0:00When a hospital is struggling
0:01financially, they're often forced to cut
0:03services. One of the first to go is
0:05usually labor and delivery. This report
0:07found that 25% of rural hospitals have
0:10had to drop OB services since 2011.
0:13Cancer care is also being cut at
0:15alarming rates. Nearly half the
0:17hospitals that once offered chemotherapy
0:18in Texas had to shut down the service
0:20between 2014 and 2022. This leaves
0:23millions of people without access to
0:24care and why we keep hearing the
0:26metaphor desert. 5.6 6 million women in
0:29this country live in a maternity desert.
0:30County leaders call this region a
0:32healthc care desert. So what's to be
0:35done? Major reason many small rural
0:37hospitals are losing money is not
0:39Medicare and it's not Medicaid. It's
0:41commercial insurance plans that are
0:43underpayment. When it comes time to
0:44renegotiate a contract, private insurers
0:46kind of have small rural hospitals in a
0:48chokeold. Contracts with insurers are
0:51typically renegotiated every year to
0:52account for things like inflation. One
0:55of these insurance companies delayed for
0:57about 8 months, which meant the hospital
1:00was losing money on reimbursement. They
1:03equated that to about $10 million in in
1:06revenue that they lost every month.
