HealthDay interviews three hospital CEOs who are worried that massive Medicaid cuts may eliminate life-saving programs for low-income Americans.
The future of Medicaid is up in the air as Congress continues to debate major reforms and massive cuts to the program, which insures 70 million low-income Americans.
Republicans are proposing an $880 billion dollar reduction – which economists say could leave millions uninsured.
Legislation just advanced by the House Energy and Commerce Committee — along party lines — includes things like copays, work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks. The battle now heads to the House Budget Committee.
Closely watching the debate… rural hospitals, which are especially vulnerable. HealthDay recently spoke to three CEOs.
Craig Thompson, CEO of Golden Valley Memorial Health Care
“The vast majority of our payors are governmental, whether that be Medicare or Medicaid, right? We're very concerned about discussions around reducing reimbursement and reducing payments to providers.”
Lori Wightman, CEO of Bothwell Regional Health Care
“We have always been trying to be very conservative with how we spend our resources and there's really no, there's not a lot of give.”
Craig Thompson, CEO of Golden Valley Memorial Health Care, and Lori Whiteman, CEO of Bothwell Regional Health Care… both located in Missouri… are worried about important programs that might not survive — like maternity care.
Craig Thompson, CEO of Golden Valley Memorial Health Care
“For most rural hospitals in Missouri, the primary payor for those services is Medicaid, both for mom and for baby. And it's already a stressed service line for all of us that are in rural Missouri to provide maternity services. And if we see further cuts to Medicaid and Medicaid reimbursement, I worry that additional maternity deserts will form across the state.”
Steve Purvis, President and CEO of Valleywise Health in Arizona shares those fears.
Steve Purves, President and CEO, Valleywise Health
“Over 50% of our revenue comes from the Medicaid program. We serve a wide swath of very vulnerable patients. We're a safety net system of care.”
And that safety net includes life-saving programs that could lose funding.
Steve Purves, President and CEO, Valleywise Health
“We have food pharmacies, for example. To make sure that people's nutrition, which impacts their health, is what it needs to be. We have pharmacies in our community health centers. Programs to support low-income individuals so they have access to their pharmaceuticals are being discussed to be cut.”
All three CEOs agree inefficiencies and waste must be tackled, but they want Congress to know…
Steve Purves, President and CEO, Valleywise Health
“Funding of Medicaid is absolutely critical to provide access to high-quality care for the most vulnerable in our communities, and we want to protect that.”
Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Leave a Reply