Support critical access to rural hospitals

A local man unafraid to wade into the political swamp could be making a big difference in getting veterans and other rural residents access to critical hospital care.

La Grande resident Steve Donnell’s contributions played an important role in helping write legislation introduced recently. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., introduced legislation that would improve access to nearly 1,300 hospitals in rural, under-served areas of the nation. The hospitals include Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande and Wallowa Memorial Hospital in Enterprise.

Medicare’s Critical Access Hospital program, as it is now written, ensures rural access, but under it hospitals must meet arbitrary requirements. These requirements include that no more than 25 beds can be occupied by patients on a given day.

What results is not a good situation for anybody. The Critical Access Hospital Flexibility Act of 2009 would help hospitals avoid unnecessary transportation costs when patients must be sent, under the law, to other hospitals. The act would give rural hospitals more flexibility in how they account for the 25-bed requirement. The act would also exempt beds occupied by military veterans from the count, ensuring that veterans could not be turned away from critical care.

When health care runs up against a slow and often inflexible bureaucracy and all the bureaucratic mazes that implies, something has to give. And usually that is the patient’s well being. Whatever this proposed legislation can do to cut red tape and still protect the public health would be beneficial.

Steve Donnell’s accomplishment in contributing to the proposed legislation proves grassroots ideas and actions can get important jobs done. In its endorsement of the legislation, the Observer joins Donnell and the National Rural Health Association, Providence Health & Services, Catholic Health Institute, the Oregon Association of Hospital and Health Systems, the American Hospital Association, the Federation of American Hospitals and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. That’s a noteworthy group of advocates on the side of progress. It’s time for a common sense solution so rural residents and veterans are not turned away from care they need and deserve.