Two critical access hospitals in California have hired physicians
under a new law that exempts the smallest and most remote
hospitals from the state’s ban on corporate medicine.
Mayers Memorial Hospital in Fall River Mills and Healdsburg
District Hospital hired physicians in January under provisions of
Assembly Bill 2024, which allows certain hospitals to hire
physicians under a seven-year pilot program that began in
January. (HealthLeaders Media)
When a state senator recently congratulated the CEO of a small,
rural northern California hospital on the influx of insured
patients expected next year because of the coming Medicaid
expansion, he may not have anticipated the response.
“It’s not going to bring me any extra money, it’s going to cost
me more money in the long run,” Matt Rees of 22-bed Mayers
Memorial Hospital District in Fall River Mills, Calif., says when
recounting the conversation. (Daly, Modern Healthcare 3/8/13)
Hospital officials in California’s rural counties say the latest
round of cuts to Medi-Cal could leave thousands of the state’s
neediest people without access to medical care.
At particular risk, they say, are elderly and long-term patients
who need skilled-nursing care.
“This is a real crisis,” said Anthony Wright, executive director
of Health Access California, a patient advocacy group. “We have
been skeptical of providers’ claims in other areas, but not with
Medi-Cal cuts.” (Smith, Sacramento Bee 11/30/11)
Matt Rees, CEO of Mayers Memorial Hospital District, recently
traveled to Washington, D.C., with members of the California
Hospital Association to protest pending state cuts to Medi-Cal,
California’s Medicaid program, the Redding Record Searchlight
reports.
