COLUMN: Rural Hospitals Deserve Relief
When Congress was first considering coronavirus relief packages, I immediately recognized the needs of our rural hospitals. While Washington began as the epicenter of the outbreak, most of the focus was on the west side of the state in heavily populated Seattle, where healthcare providers are abundant and where experts were concerned hospital bed capacity constraints could threaten the availability of care.
On the east side of the Cascades, our cities are not as heavily populated. Doctors' offices and hospitals are not easy to access, and emergency rooms are not often overflowing. In many communities, there is a single clinic or hospital that serves as the sole provider, and patients can travel hundreds of miles in order to receive care. Open hospital beds are typically filled by patients with important pre-scheduled treatments and elective procedures, which serve as the primary source of revenue for these rural facilities.
We must ensure our healthcare professionals can safely care for rural patients throughout this pandemic.
I joined my colleagues in sending a letter to congressional leadership urging that our rural hospitals not be forgotten in any aid package signed into law. The letter requested increased Medicare reimbursement rates for rural providers, access to testing and resources like personal protective equipment (PPE), and an immediate expansion of telehealth services.
Our voices were heard, and our requests were included in the passage of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Stability (CARES) Act. I followed up my support for the package with a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Azar pressing him to swiftly implement the CARES Act provisions and strengthen our rural healthcare system.
In Washington, our healthcare professionals have been facing this crisis longer than anyone in the country. Governor Inslee's "Stay Home, Stay Healthy" order included a ban on elective procedures – thereby restricting the primary source of income – so our rural hospitals have been operating under these strained conditions for weeks.
We are beginning to see drive-thru testing sites pop up, run by local healthcare providers and, in some cases, the National Guard. PPE is being delivered and donated. And as other states overtake Washington in the number of coronavirus cases, the Governor has authorized the return of excess ventilators to the Strategic National Stockpile and has halted opening emergency hospitals like the field hospital at CenturyLink stadium in Seattle and the reopening of Astria Regional hospital in Yakima.
I am cautiously optimistic about our future, but our economy – and our rural hospitals – remain on lockdown. With a relatively low coronavirus patient count, our Central Washington hospitals continue to struggle to pay staff and even keep the lights on.
With hospitals on the brink of closure, I am calling on Department of the Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Small Business Administration Administrator Carranza to make rural hospitals eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program, a program designed to help small and medium sized businesses keep their doors open and employees paid through the COVID-19 outbreak.
Our rural hospitals and providers work every day to ensure the health of our communities, and our healthcare professionals sacrifice their own safety to ensure ours. They deserve our investment. As I continue to work in Congress to provide relief for rural hospitals, I am hopeful our communities can continue to work together.