The One Huge Stunning Invoice Act’s new $50 billion rural hospital fund is a constructive step towards advancing rural well being infrastructure — however short-term injections of money gained’t repair deeply rooted systemic challenges, one professional identified.
“Cash shouldn’t be the one reply,” mentioned Jason Griffin, managing director at consulting agency Nordic World.
Throughout his time at Nordic, Griffin has labored alongside organizations like Microsoft and CHIME to assist modernize rural hospitals’ IT infrastructure and broaden using digital well being instruments amid ongoing workforce and reimbursement challenges.
He is aware of that rural suppliers’ stability is deeply threatened by looming Medicaid cuts. Whereas last-minute funding was added as a stopgap, Griffin famous it should solely cowl about 37% of those suppliers’ potential losses over the following 5 years.
Sooner or later, he mentioned he want to see federal and state governments spend money on infrastructure — similar to dependable broadband connectivity and steady EHR programs — as an alternative of leaving rural hospitals to shoulder prices.
Higher infrastructure would allow sustainable telehealth and value-based care, Griffin added.
Federal and state funding must also assist healthcare workforce improvement in rural communities, together with partnerships with universities and medical coaching applications, he said.
“All of that actually can be wanted to assist long-term sustainability with that money injection. I imply, we will spend some huge cash, after which 5 years from now, be in the identical boat,” Griffin remarked.
Cybersecurity is one space the place rural hospitals’ staffing challenges are particularly acute, he famous — mentioning that these suppliers typically have solely 4 or 5 folks of their IT departments
Most rural suppliers battle to handle third-party danger, which is now a number one explanation for healthcare information breaches, Griffin mentioned.
“Prolonged downtime, even over every week, can shut your group down completely. And we’ve seen these breaches trigger as much as 5 – 6 weeks of downtime — and it simply can’t be sustained,” he declared.
Rural hospitals should continually select between investing in scientific tools or cybersecurity — which is a burden city hospitals don’t face, Griffin added.
He additionally famous that there aren’t any necessities for state-by-state reporting or for measuring outcomes tied to the funding. He confused the necessity for metrics — similar to emergency division wait instances and maternal well being outcomes — to trace whether or not this funding improves look after rural communities.
In Griffin’s view, a one-time money injection dangers being wasted with out clear funding methods. He believes investments ought to go towards infrastructure enhancements, workforce improvement and shared providers.
