In a new op-ed published by RealClear Health, Nancy Howell Agee, CEO of Carilion Clinic and Chair of the Coalition to Strengthen America’s Healthcare, explains that “[h]ospitals and health systems play a central, irreplaceable role in our society,” but “across the nation, these vital institutions are under serious threat.”
She writes:
Even before the recent Change Healthcare cyberattack that has left some hospitals fronting millions of dollars in extra costs, a perfect storm of complex factors was already threatening the future of high-quality patient care — and misguided proposals from policymakers risk making things even worse…
Powerful special interests are trying to persuade policymakers that health care providers are interchangeable and there is nothing special about our nation’s hospitals. But anyone who’s ever been a patient, a health care provider, or both knows that simply isn’t true.
The data make it clear: America’s hospitals and health systems treat sicker patients, lower-income patients, and patients with more complex conditions than other types of providers. Hospitals are often the only place patients can turn for life-or-death emergency treatments, specialty services, or complex, coordinated care — from trauma care and burn units to NICUs and inpatient psychiatric care. The American people visited emergency departments nearly 140 million times in 2022 alone.
And hospitals and health systems aren’t just the front lines of 24/7 patient care. They backstop our nation’s entire health care system. Where other sites of care sometimes turn patients away, hospitals care for every patient who comes through their doors, including the most vulnerable…
Hospitals and health systems play a central, irreplaceable role in our society. That’s why it is so concerning that hospitals are being squeezed by a huge array of financial pressures — from inflation and skyrocketing drug prices to the cost of medical supplies and equipment, critical workforce shortages, and labor costs.
And while the costs of providing care have skyrocketed, the reimbursements flowing into hospitals have not kept up. The federal government is one major offender: Medicare only reimburses hospitals at 82 cents on the dollar, totaling $99.2 billion in underpayments in 2022 alone. At the same time, while many corporate insurance companies bank record profits for themselves, their approval delays and coverage denials frequently leave hospitals and patients on the hook.
Policymakers have been asking our hospitals to do more and more with less and less. The math just isn’t adding up. A majority of our nation’s hospitals operated at a financial loss in 2022. Nearly 150 rural hospitals and counting have had to cut services or close their doors over the last decade. Many more are at risk of following suit.
“The status quo cannot continue,” Agee continues. “Our current trajectory could leave fewer patients with 24/7 access to high-quality, complex care … Patients and caregivers know hospitals are unique and vital. And the data prove that hospitals are unique and vital. Policymakers must understand this, too.”
- To read Nancy Howell Agee’s full op-ed at RealClear Health, click here.