To the editor:
Rural Iowa has experienced a decline in health facilities and qualified staff for decades. State and federal leaders have worked tirelessly to craft policies to reverse this trend and incentivize healthcare workers who provide much needed care to rural communities.
However, a recent unintended rule change by the Center for Medicare Services (CMS) threatens to drive independent physicians away from skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) in the places that need them most.
SNFs are a vital step in recovering from major health interventions. They provide specialized medical care to patients who have been discharged from the hospital but are not quite ready to go home. Many physicians working at these facilities run their own practices and provide care for medically complex patients.
Under new CMS rules, these independent practices were erroneously given the same reimbursement structure as hospital-employed physicians whose employers have their own billing departments and administrative support staff.
Physicians in SNFs now receive less money in reimbursements than previous years, jeopardizing the solvency of their practices and pushing them away from providing care that is desperately needed, especially in rural areas where options are thin.
The last thing rural Iowans need is more health facilities shutting their doors. Our legislators should work with CMS to align SNF physician reimbursements with those nursing facilities receive. CMS already acknowledges the practice expenses that come with nursing care, and aligning their treatment is a commonsense revision.
Leaders must act soon before all the progress we’ve made on expanding rural healthcare is thrown out the window.
DeArra Foster
Windsor Heights