(Radio Iowa) – A quarterly report by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform has found two of Iowa’s 94 rural hospitals are at immediate risk of closing. Harold Miller is the president and C-E-O of the group and says the problem is there are higher fixed costs for essential services at rural hospitals.
He says rural hospitals also aren’t getting reimbursed enough by Medicaid, Medicare.
The report also found eight hospitals are at risk of closing in general. And 20 hospitals are operating at a loss on patient services. Miller says the aim of the report is not to predict which hospitals will close, but to encourage conversation about how to best support rural health care.
