
A recent report reveals that the mounting financial pressures hospitals in Tennessee and across the country are facing are ultimately affecting access to care.
The American Hospital Association found hospital expenses across the board saw double-digit increases in 2022 compared with pre-pandemic levels in categories such as workforce, drugs, medical supplies and equipment.
Aaron Wesolowski, vice president for policy research and analytics with the American Hospital Association, said the report found that after caring for more than 6 million patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and continuing to provide care during the pandemic, hospitals are now facing new challenges in the form of rapidly rising costs as a result of workforce shortages and record inflation.
"Hospitals' inability to fill physicians can affect how many patients that can actually be admitted into the hospital and keep staffed if they don't have enough nurses or doctors to staff those beds," he said. "Those impacts can be felt by patients and communities."
Wesolowski pointed out that the issues are across the board, and certainly rural Tennessee hospitals already face some serious challenges before the pandemic, in terms of relying heavily on Medicare and Medicaid. He adds both tend to underpay for the cost of care. He notes that attracting the workforce employees in rural areas can be a real challenge.
Wesolowski added hospitals have faced financial challenges for a number of years, as their overall expenses have increased by 17.5% between 2019 and 2022, far outpacing Medicare reimbursement rates, which increased by 7.5% during the same period.
"We would like to see Medicare rates keep up with the rate of inflation," he explained. "And we'd like to see the federal agency that oversees the Medicare program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, update and modernize the methods that they use to calculate those rates on an annual basis."
He pointed out it is important to note that there are a number of proposals in Congress to further cut Medicare rates, and added they are working on pushing back on any further cuts that are going to impact payments to providers and ultimately could affect their ability to provide access to their communities.
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Comment FeedI went to my area hospital in a small town for post menopausal bleeding. They did a quick test and discovered a mass. They sent me on my way with info on uterine fibroids and told me to find a specialist. It took me a year without insurance to find someone to biopsy the mass. It was cancer of course as this is the number one symptom to uterine cancer. I now have cancer cells in lymph nodes found after a total hysterectomy. Had the hospital not tried to get the uninsured person out as fast and cheaply as possible my outcome could be much better. Profits before people at this hospital. I found another hospital that put people first finally. But it may be too late now. The biopsy did not require any surgery just a quick snip of the area the doctor was already at.
Pat w 27 days ago