Credit Josh McBee / nondoc.com
Another rural hospital closed in Oklahoma this month, and yet another has filed for bankruptcy, reports nondoc.com. And now Oklahoma Hospital Association president Craig Jones is expressing a host of concerns. “Clearly we are in some very serious times as health care transitions,” Jones said. He and the Hospital Association believe Oklahoma should accept federal funding to expand Insure Oklahoma.
Rural hospitals have been in dire straits since the state chose not to expand the traditional Medicaid program. Jones and his board have been trying to use the federal dollars that are available to expand coverage under Insure Oklahoma.
But health officials’ efforts to expand insurance in Oklahoma have met with resistance from GOP lawmakers. More insured Oklahomans would mean more hospital reimbursements. And those dollars would go a long way toward helping rural hospitals.