EPHC on List of Rural Hospitals at Risk From Medicaid Cuts – CEO Responds

PLUMAS COUNTY — In a June 12 letter to President Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, four Democratic senators (Markey, Wyden, Markley and Schumer) warned that rural hospitals would be “uniquely at risk” as a result of cuts to Medicaid programs that were then being debated in Congress, and which were subsequently enacted and signed by the President. Health care organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association, have also advocated against the cuts to federal health programs. The Hospital Association said in a fact sheet on rural health care that the cuts to Medicaid “could result in coverage losses, fewer available health care services, fewer jobs and greater hospital financial instability.”

The senators’ letter, which has been reported in national news and circulated on social media, includes a list of hospitals at risk of closure due to cuts to Medicaid: Eastern Plumas Health Care (EPHC), which has facilities in Portola and Loyalton, is among the hospitals on that list. At-risk hospitals were identified through research by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina in response to the senators’ inquiries. The researchers used two indicators to identify rural hospitals most at risk of closure: whether a hospital’s share of Medicaid patients is in the top 10% among rural hospitals nationwide, and whether the hospital has had three consecutive years of unprofitability.

According to detailed data generated by the North Carolina researchers, EPHC’s share of Medicaid patients is approximately 41%, while the share for other area hospitals in Plumas, Sierra, Nevada, and Lassen counties ranges from 17% to 27%.

EPHC’s CEO, Doug McCoy, responded to the senators’ letter in a post on the EPHC website and an email to The Mountain Messenger. McCoy wrote that EPHC opposes the Medicaid cuts and said he appreciated that the letter was “intended to show that these cuts will have real consequences.” But he lamented that the letter lacks context about the hospital’s current financial health, 5-year forecast and other key statistics, allowing social media to “complete the narrative without actual data” and leaving “community members, employees, and patients with an impression that EPHC could be at operational risk,” which has generated “unnecessary fear and anxiety.”

He said that EPHC’s larger share of patients with Medicaid is likely a result of demographic differences across the area, as well as the fact that it is the only health service provider in Sierra County and operates two skilled nursing facilities. However, he emphasized that EPHC is in a stronger position than many rural hospitals that serve Medicaid patients, due to actions taken since the COVID-19 pandemic to limit costs, reduce debt, and strengthen cash reserves, in preparation for future challenges. These actions, he said, have “placed EPHC in the strongest position we have been in for 10-plus years and as prepared as possible to continue operations without any disruption to service.”