Ohio rural hospitals form task force to advocate for federal dollars

As states prepare to receive their share of the $50 billion in rural health funding included in the recently passed HR1 federal spending bill, independent rural hospitals in Ohio are banding together to advocate for how it is spent (Source: “Rural, independent Ohio hospitals band together for say in how Trump bill's billions spent,” Columbus Dispatch, Aug. 5).
 
Ohio will likely get at least $500 million from the bill, but the funding provision, whose last-minute addition to the reconciliation bill was championed by Ohio Sens. Bernie Moreno and John Husted, contains vague language. While it says that states must apply, it doesn't define who the "state" is or give a clear definition of "rural" when describing the program's scope, which means states and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could define it as broadly as officials wish.
 
Rural hospitals tend to have higher percentages of Medicare and Medicaid patients than urban hospitals. Approximately 10 million people are expected to lose insurance coverage by 2034, according to the CBO, under those Medicaid changes.
 
And while it's more than rural hospitals had before the spending bill passed, reports from the Congressional Budget Office detail that the $50 billion over the next five years makes up only 37% of the revenue projected to be lost due to Medicaid changes from the same bill, according to a KFF Health News analysis.
 
Last year, HPIO published a data snapshot that explored the drivers of health and health outcomes in rural Ohio.