Area mothers can have babies at MercyOne Newton Medical Center and UnityPoint Grinnell Regional Medical Center. A report by the non-profit Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform finds most rural hospitals no longer deliver babies. To be exact….there research says 61-percent of Iowa’s rural hospitals don’t do it. Harold Miller is the C-E-O of the non-profit. He says their report analyzed federal data and also discovered that out of the 36 rural hospitals in the state still assisting mothers with their deliveries, 58-percent claim they’re losing money on their birthing units. So Miller says insurance companies and Medicaid need to reimburse hospitals more.
Miller also claims it’s really hard to reopen the birthing units once they close.
The Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform leader also believes policymakers need to find ways to recruit and train more people to work in rural healthcare.