A recent approval of a $56 million replacement hospital project for Morgantown, W.Va.-based Mon Health may be putting another local hospital's existence in jeopardy, according to a July 11 My Buckhannon report.
The Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital project approval in June allows for construction to begin on a new 29-bed acute care hospital in Weston, W.Va., but such a project also threatens to cause financial difficulties for Morgantown-based WVU Medicine-owned St. Joseph's Hospital, a critical access hospital located in nearby Buckhannon.
Such a designation allows for St. Joseph's to get higher Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, but it would lose the designation given that the proposed new hospital would be too close to allow St. Joseph's to continue to qualify as a critical access hospital.
"The loss of CAH status would bring into question the long-term viability of St. Joseph's Hospital," St. Joseph's CEO Skip Gjolberg wrote in an email to the news outlet, according to the report.
Certificate of need laws have also recently changed in West Virginia. While Stonewall's initial CON application for its project was rejected, the new legislation increased the CON requirements to only apply to capital projects worth at least $100 million. Stonewall asked for the state healthcare authority to reconsider the project in light of the new legislation, and it was approved in June.
St. Joseph's, which has long opposed the proposed Stonewall Jackson Memorial project, has filed an appeal on the most recent ruling.