Rural hospital in Tennessee closes

Ducktown in Polk County in Tennessee
(Wikipedia map)

Another rural hospital in a state that did not expand Medicaid has closed.

"The Copperhill and Ducktown communities in Tennessee are now without medical care as the rural area's only hospital, Copper Basin Medical Center, shut its doors for good Sunday. CEO Dan Johnson told local ABC News affiliate NewsChannel 9 that doctors had only been seeing about 10 patients a day in the emergency room, which is about one-third of what a hospital of that size needs to stay afloat," Jeff Lagasse reports for Healthcare Finance News.

"He said changes in health-care administration led to a gap in funding for the hospital, as well as less of a need. Yet the next closest facility is 15 miles away in [Georgia's] Fannin County, which means those in need of emergency care would likely need to be transported by helicopter. According to the Cleveland Daily Banner, the hospital had not been accepting new patients for some time, but had been providing inpatient and emergency services."

Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has tried to expand Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, citing the threat to Tennessee hospitals, but the Republican-controlled Legislature has refused.

The North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center at the University of North Carolina says 81 rural hospitals have closed since 2010. "Many more are struggling to stay open," Lagasse notes. "The implication is that the rural health safety net is unraveling; 41 percent of rural hospitals are operating at a negative margin, the data showed. Numerous factors impact these operating margins, including payer mix and the percentage of uninsured; allowable cost-based Medicare reimbursement; the employment rate and the related availability of employer-sponsored commercial insurance; payer-negotiated rates; the availability of primary care; and population health and health disparities."