Glen County Hospital to close after loss of critical status

From Anna B. IbaraCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

Missing Merry Mary, Glenn’s only hospital is ready to close her doors in October.

Stopped between two national forests, the village district is home to 28,000 people. Without a local emergency room, they will have to travel to a neighboring district for critical care instead. One hundred and fifty health workers will lose their jobs; They are already reconciling to look for work elsewhere.

The planned closure of the Glen Medical Center follows a decision by US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to undress the name “critical access” of the hospital, a status provided by Glenn Medical Enhanced recovery and flexibility of the regulator. Without this status, $ 28 million from $ 28 million net annual revenue will take a hit of about 40% – a gap, too large to fill another way from closing the hospital, Lauren said, CEO of the hospital.

“It’s heartfelt that we’re getting to it. I still pray for that miracle from the 11th hour to go through,” he said. “But honestly, we just have to be realistic and this is the hand we are examined with.”

Over the last few months However, her team is also trying to do their work with the Federal Health Agency, even flying to Washington in July in an attempt to lobby their case.

The basis of the question is a federal rule, a newly interpreted, which requires hospitals for critical access to be at least 35 miles from the next closest hospital when traveling on main roads. CMS officials now say that the next closer hospital, Colusa Medical Center, is only 32 miles – 3 miles from the required distance.

Glen Medical Center and the County Health Office claim that most people and ambulances take a different route, I-5 to the highway 20. This route is 35.7 miles, a distance that would qualify.

“We really felt that by receiving all our stories there … by showing all the different people who would be influenced by this decision, we really thought that it would be enough information about them (CMS) to view the human and practical considerations of their decision,” he said. “Unfortunately, the only thing that matters is how they measure road distance.”

Feders first notified Glenn Medical in April that the re -certification review found that the hospital was not eligible for the critical access program. The hospital staff clutched to hope that appeal and communication with the agency would clarify the situation. But in a letter of August 13, the agency told the hospital that it was standing with its original decision.

“After examining the additional information from the hospital, CMS found that the hospital continues to not meet the distance requirement,” the letter said.

The locations of Glenn Medical Center and its neighbor A County Over have not changed since in 2001 Glenn Medical Medical became admissible for the critical access program. Calmatters asked the federal agency why it was seeking to cancel the hospital’s appointment now after more than two decades of eligibility at the same distance. The agency did not answer the question directly, but in an email simply repeated the program ranking requirements.

CMS said Glenn Medical Center may convert to another type of supplier to continue to participate in the Medicare program. But he still said that no other Medicare recovery model would pay the hospital with a financially sustainable rate. According to the Critical Access Program, the Federal Government pays 101% of its costs for stationary and outpatient services provided to Medicare patients.

US representative Doug Lamalfa, a Republican from Richveil, who represents Glen County, said he continues to talk to Dr. Mehmet Oz, CMS administrator. He said they had last spoken last week.

“We do not give up any section, we will take out all the stops,” Lamalfa said. “We had a really good conversation with Dr. Oz and we are looking for a way to get him to work because closure is not acceptable. This is a technical problem that we need to find a way to work.”

Lamalfa said he was considering introducing a bill that could update the mileage requirement or give CMS more discretion in the evaluation of hospitals in rural areas. But it is not clear that something can be done before October.

Glen Medical Center and his staff cannot wait much longer. The hospital has announced that it will maintain its clinics open, but the stationary services will cease on October 21. Still, she said that she expects to be not enough staff at the time to be able to work.

“We had to start talking to the staff and tell the staff that” Hey, we have no future here. There is no viable path forward for us without this critical designation of access, “we still said.” At that moment we started to get the staff resignation. “

With the announced closure, most residents of Glen County will have to look for emergency services or at the hospital in Colusian County, or further at the Medical Center of the Booth County, a major traumatic center at level II in Chico.

“We are actively inspecting the available resources to ensure our willingness to absorb the expected increased volumes of patients in the Emergency Aid Division of ENLOE HEALTH,” Enlo Health wrote in an unsigned statement.

The two ambulances of the Glen County will also have to travel further and be out of the county for longer periods of time, leaving the residents with even more restricted emergency resources.

The announced closure is a clear reminder of the uncertain state in rural hospitals in California. Even with the increased recovery of Medicare, the annual financial statements of the Glen Medical Center show that the hospital has consistently worked in red.

Two years ago, the state saved 17 village and public hospitals – Glen Medicin was not one of them – taking them near $ 300 million. This loan program was largely encouraged by Closing the Madera Community Hospitalwhich also left an entire county without emergency services. Following the bankruptcy production, Madera Community is already owned and is managed by American Advanced Management, a company with a profit that made a business of rescuing difficult and closed hospitals. The company also owns the Glenn Medical Center.

“This is devastating for our group from a personal point of view, because we are really proud of being someone who enters and reaches the hospitals again,” he said. “When we enter a community, we make that promise to the community that we will not save them.”

Supported by the California Foundation for Health (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the necessary care when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.