Report: GOP bills would mean lost jobs, revenue for rural Kansas hospitals

A new report says the House-approved American Health Care Act could cause Kansas to lose 486 rural jobs and $16.6 million in rural hospital revenue in one year — and the numbers for the Senate-proposed Better Care Reconciliation Act aren’t far behind.

“When we look at these numbers it’s really hard to understand how this is going to help rural hospitals,” said Michael Topchik, national leader of the Chartis Center for Rural Health. “It’s really hard to understand how this is going to help a rural person.”

The Chartis Center, which owns the for-profit research group iVantage Health Analytics, released the data Wednesday. The Chartis Center is a national advisory services firm in the health care industry.

Nationwide, the AHCA’s proposed Medicaid cuts would result in a $1.4 billion loss each year to rural providers, while the BCRA would create a $1.3 billion loss each year, according to the report.

The two Republican health care bills could also create a $50 million (under the BCRA) or $54 million (under the AHCA) “drag” on the state’s gross domestic product within one year, according to the analysis.

Although Kansas would be affected less than states that expanded Medicaid, rural America relies disproportionately on Medicaid payments, Topchik said.

Kansas’ 108 rural hospitals already have the nation’s worst median operating profit margin (with the exception of Hawaii, which has a different hospital structure), with 76 percent of rural hospitals falling in the red, according to iVantage.

“Hospitals in the red, at some point there’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” Topchik said.

The BCRA could cause Kansas’ rural hospitals to lose 450 jobs and $15.4 million in revenue within one year, according to the report.

This story was originally published June 29, 2017 at 4:43 PM with the headline "Report: GOP bills would mean lost jobs, revenue for rural Kansas hospitals."