Rich Rasmussen

The President and CEO of the Oklahoma Hospital Association, Rich Rasmussen, and Chief Legal Officer, Maggie Martin, spoke at the Purcell Rotary Club meeting last Wednesday and had some sobering news about hospitals. Not only in Oklahoma, but nation-wide.

Extensive cuts in federal funding are heading our way, with Oklahoma set to lose $6,778,146,135 starting in 2029 and running through 2038.

In FY 2029 Purcell Municipal will lose $109,133,490 in federal funding with Oklahoma as a state losing $814,093,630.

The yearly losses go up incrementally from year to year with Purcell topping off at an annual  loss of $874,321 in 2035, 2036, 2037 and 2038.

Over a 10-year period, PMH is set to lose over $6.5 million.

Other hospitals in the Fourth District stand to lose millions over the 10-year period including Norman Regional, $210M, Mercy Ada, $53M, Mercy Ardmore, $96M, Grady Memorial, $16M, Duncan Regional, $78M, Arbuckle Memorial, $10M and INTEGERS Southwest, $164M.

Rasmussen told the Rotarians present that PMH is a PPS (Prospective Payment System) hospital.

“That is a facility that is reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid using predetermined, fixed rates for patient services, rather than paying for the actual cost of the treatment,” Rasmussen said.

“In other words, every Medicare or Medicaid patient is a loss to the hospital,” he said saying Medicare patients are a 90 percent dollar loss on any patient.

“Our hospitals have to provide care if a patient comes in. They cannot turn anyone away,” he continued.

Rasmussen used going to the grocery store as an example.

“If you go into the grocery store you can’t  just pick up a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk and walk out the door,” he said. “You have to pay for it.”

That’s not so for hospitals that can’t turn away a patient.

Medicaid is for the uninsured patients or the poor, Rasmussen continued.

It is also the largest provider for pregnant mothers,” Rasmussen said.

PMH CEO/CNO Chris Wright told The Register the losses start in 2028 which impact fiscal year 2029’s budget cycle.

“Our evolving plan involves increasing procedures,” Wright said. “Examples include us bringing on Dr. Charles Mitchell to perform GI endoscopy procedures as well as our new $92,000 grant to start the Dysphagis program to offset this impact as much as possible.”

Oklahoma has already lost 10 hospitals statewide since 2005, including Valley Community Hospital, Mercy Hospital in El Reno, Latimer County General Hospital, Sayre Community Hospital, Epic Medical Center, Memorial Hospital & Physician Group, Muskogee Community Hospital, Pawnee Municipal Hospital, USPHS Clinton Indian Hospital and Stilwell Medical
Center.

Rasmussen said to offset these severe cuts, facilities may have to cut services or personnel.

The DOD spends $7,300,000,000 annually in Oklahoma and the cuts to hospitals is $6,778,146,135.

And to compound the problem, medical students can only borrow $200,000 in student loans which will not pay for medical school and nursing students can now only borrow $100,000.

That’s the word from Martin, so replenishing the needs for doctors and nurses is being impeded.

And speaking of the work force, Tinker AFB has an FTE of 26,000 while the FTE for Oklahoma hospitals is 52,000.

Tinker’s payroll is $1.7B while hospitals’ is $3.1B.

Rasmussen reported the indirect impact of Tinker’s payroll is $5.1B while the hospital’s is $9.5B.