Rural Kansas hospitals are vying for Medicaid expansion in their state, according to a Kansas City Star report.
Dennis Franks, CEO of Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center in Chanute, Kan., which serves about 42,000 residents, was among the people who recently testified before the Kansas Legislature's House Standing Committee on Vision 2020, making note of the economic challenges that rural hospitals are facing.
Mr. Franks notes in the report that it costs about $1.4 million annually to provide charity and uncompensated care at Neosho, which serves in an area of the state where 12.5 percent of the population doesn't have insurance and more than 30 percent of all children live in poverty.
Hospital officials contend in the report that the issue for rural hospitals, including Neosho, is that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is partly paid for through a reduction in Medicare payments to hospitals.
"That was supposed to be offset by increasing the number of people with insurance, through expanded Medicaid and subsidized private insurance sold through exchange markets, thus lowering the amount of money hospitals lose through uncompensated or charity care," the report reads.
According to the report, Kansas will give up $380 million in federal funding this year due to not expanding Medicaid, based on estimates from the Kansas Hospital Association.
The chairman of the Kansas House Standing Committee on Vision 2020, Rep. Tom Sloan (R-Lawrence), said in the report that he aims to come up with some kind of Medicaid expansion plan that could get approval from the conservative Legislature.
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