State and local leaders met at a rural health care summit last week at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford to discuss the challenges health care providers face and possible solutions.
Several hospitals in north central Pennsylvania have closed their labor and delivery services in the past few years, leading to a seven-county maternity care desert. It’s part of a bigger trend of declining access to health care and other services in rural communities.
“When you have people coming to the table like this, it just shows that there is a willingness to collaborate, and there are people that actually do care," said James Moate, a Cameron County Commissioner. Cameron County is the least populated county in the state, and no longer has any pharmacy after Rite Aid closed in Emporium.
The summit also included leaders from UPMC, Penn Highlands, the state’s Secretary of Health, and state lawmakers. Rep. Marty Causer, a Republican, said he heard several ideas he might bring to Harrisburg.
“There were some ideas about partnering with federally qualified health care centers, looking at potential birthing centers," Causer said. "We are going to have to get creative with that because women need a location to go deliver their babies and we need to do it in a safe manner.”
There were four work groups at the summit: workforce and pipeline development, access to care and services, emergency medical services/transportation, and women's health and maternity care/birthing centers. Val Arkoosh, the state's secretary of the Department of Human Services, was in the women's health group.
“Can we bring technology through mobile vans and other opportunities to get care to people so it’s a little bit easier to access if the local hospital is no longer doing labor and delivery, you know, actually doing deliveries?” Arkoosh said.
Health care leaders point to low reimbursement rates from the state and federal government as one reason for declining services, along with a shrinking rural population.
Some experts at the summit, including Arkoosh, said the recently passed federal budget law will have a "devastating" impact on rural hospitals. But not everyone in attendance agrees with that stance. State Sen. Cris Dush said in a recent mission report that the "One Big Beautiful Bill" will save rural hospitals. He pointed to the $50 billion fund added to support rural hospitals, and said enforcing work requirements for Medicaid will protect the future of the program.
Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services estimates more than 300,000 Pennsylvanians will lose Medicaid coverage because of the expanded work eligibility requirements. DHS made those calculations based on several factors, including data on the number of Medicaid expansion cases that are typically closed every year because the recipient does not complete an annual renewal.
