NEWS FLASH

Medicaid Cuts May Force West Virginia Hospitals To Shut Down | The West Virginia Gazette is reporting that hospital executives in West Virginia are closely monitoring the deficit talks, knowing that more Medicaid funding cuts could literally shut down “rural health sites across the state.” “If reimbursements are cut, too, what we’re going to see, I do believe, is the closure of some of our hospitals — and maybe even physician practices associated with hospitals — because we can’t operate in the negative,” one executive said in the article. According to the Gazette’s report, “many of West Virginia’s community hospitals are in the same situation, according to Tony Gregory, vice president of the West Virginia Hospital Association. In 2009, 36 West Virginia hospitals — 58 percent of all those in the state — lost money taking care of patients, he said.”