Local Democrats, in the spirit of “getting into good trouble,” a motto of civil-rights pioneer John Lewis, amassed across the street from Augusta Health Thursday morning to bring attention to the trillions of dollars in Medicaid cuts in the Big Ugly Bill signed into law on July 4.
The Medicaid cuts will knock more than 17 million Americans off the healthcare rolls, and they will also impact operations at hospitals – a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation projects that the Commonwealth could end up losing as much as $4 billion a year over the next 10 years.
A particular area of focus is on rural hospitals, like our local hospital, Augusta Health, that are going to be faced with tough choices that could impact not just the people being thrown off the Medicaid rolls, but the rest of us as well.
Six rural Virginia hospitals made the list of the more than 300 nationwide that face possible closure because of the loss of reimbursements from Medicaid impacting their bottom lines.
Augusta Health isn’t quite there, but because 28 percent of its patients have their healthcare costs covered by Medicaid – well above the national average of Medicaid patients for a hospital, which is 16.7 percent – the pressure is going to be on the money people to figure out how to account for a reduction in Medicaid revenues without having to make cuts to vital services.
The problem here for Augusta Health is, even before the cuts the MAGAs enacted so that they can give rich people a tax break, Medicaid wasn’t exactly paying its bills.
Augusta Health, with annual revenues at $469 million in 2023, according to its IRS filing for that year, reported a $6.7 million shortfall in reimbursements from Medicaid.
On top of that, the hospital reported providing $9.1 million in financial assistance to patients, in essence, free healthcare.
“These reductions will create real challenges for all health systems, including ours,” said Mary N. Mannix, president and CEO of Augusta Health, in a statement released on Thursday. “While the impact will be phased in over the next several years, the cumulative effect on access to care and hospital sustainability is serious.”
A press release from Augusta Health addressing the rally led by local Democrats reported that the hospital “remains in a relatively strong financial position, operating with no debt and a healthy reserve,” and that the hospital’s “leadership and Board of Directors are currently developing a long-term response plan to ensure continued service to the community.”
This stands in contrast to the thrust of the public statement that the hospital made to its Facebook page back on July 2, as it attempted to inform the community of the dangers of the Medicaid cuts in the Big Ugly Bill.
“These are the largest Medicaid cuts in history, and will disproportionately impact rural and medically underserved communities, such as ours, and drastically increase uncompensated care for hospitals, like Augusta Health,” the statement read.
The Facebook post was later deleted from the page, in the wake of a flood of negative comments from Trump supporters.
We reached out to Augusta Health after the post was deleted to get somebody there to address the move to shrink back from the July 2 public statement, but never got a response.
You can read into the first statement on the Medicaid cuts, the move to pull back from the statement, and the message we’re getting today, essentially, all is well, as a recognition that things are what they are, the Medicaid cuts aren’t going to be walked back, and we’re just going to figure it out.
Not exactly complying in advance, but Augusta Health is complying.
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Chris Graham
