Becky Slifkin, a member of the RUPRI Rural Health Panel and Director of the North Carolina Rural Health Research & Policy Analysis Center, participated in a Congressional Rural Caucus briefing on rural hospitals. CRC Co-Chair Glenn Thompson (R-PA) hosted the briefing on critical issues for the viability of rural hospitals.
Slifkin highlighted recent and projected financial experiences of rural hospitals, through the preview of two studies currently underway at the NC Center. In a recent analysis utilizing Medicare cost report data, 23% of Critical Access Hospitals and 21% of Medicare dependent hospitals had a negative cash flow margin in 2007. 5% of rural referral hospitals had a negative cash flow margin in the same period. In a separate currently ongoing survey, rural hospitals are being queried on their current and anticipated financial status. Preliminary results indicate that almost 60% of respondents rate their current operating activity and results as fair or worse and approximately 40% rate their current operating activity as worse than six months ago. In trends to match employment pictures across the country, approximately one –third of hospitals have decreased the number of staff in the last six months or plan to decrease their staff in the next year. As hospitals continue to focus on improving the quality of care, staffing cutbacks will make that important goal more difficult.
Additional briefing participants included Bill Carpenter, CEO of Life Point Healthcare and Maggie Elehwany, Vice President of Government Affairs and Policy at the National Rural Health Association. The Congressional Rural Caucus Chairs have appointed Congressmen Parker Griffith (D-AL) and Phil Roe (R-TN) to lead the CRC Rural Health Task Force.
