JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KFVS) – The Missouri Economic Research and Information Center predicts that Missouri's health care industry will grow over the next 15 years, but local health facilities are not expected to experience that kind of growth. No.
MERIC predicts a 15% increase in employment for healthcare workers and healthcare support positions by 2040.
Meanwhile, nearly all of Missouri is considered a “shortage area” for these positions by the Regional Health Information Hub.
Only Platte, Clay and Cass counties, all in the Kansas City metropolitan area, are listed as having no shortage of health care workers.
The most populous counties, Jackson County, St. Louis County, St. Charles County, Jefferson County and St. Louis City, are considered to be partially deficient, while the other 106 counties are considered to be collectively deficient.
This disparity was brought up during a recent hearing of the Missouri House of Representatives Special Interim Committee on Workforce Innovation and Technology.
The committee's chairman, state Rep. Louis Riggs (R-Hannibal), noted this phenomenon.
“We're seeing increases in this sector across all sectors, but rural hospitals are closing down,” said Riggs, R-Hannibal. ”
Missouri currently has 23 rural hospitals in the red and 17 more with profit margins of 5% or less, according to data compiled by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform.
“Rural health facilities are run by staff who are able to multi-task and are comfortable in multiple areas,” said Megan Weber, CEO of Scotland County Hospital. “This includes doctors, nurses, therapists, mid-level healthcare workers, etc. Healthcare is specialized, but in an organization like ours, one nurse may be responsible for acute, emergency, obstetrics, etc. , sometimes all the infusions can be done in one week.”
Weber also noted that rural facilities are often driven by Medicare patients.
“More than half of our patient population is Medicare, and as you know, Medicare reimburses about 30 percent of our fees,” Weber said. “As a critical access hospital, we get reimbursed for a portion of our costs on the back end, but that reimbursement is only 50 to 55 percent.If Medicare reimburses rural hospitals, these facilities across the country will be stable.”
Medicare is administered by the federal government and the Medicaid program is administered by state agencies.
Copyright 2024 KFVS. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
