{"id":23871,"date":"2025-01-26T18:38:22","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T01:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/possible-changes-to-medicaid-at-federal-level-are-biggest-threat-to-rural-health-care\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:43:12","slug":"possible-changes-to-medicaid-at-federal-level-are-biggest-threat-to-rural-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/possible-changes-to-medicaid-at-federal-level-are-biggest-threat-to-rural-health-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Possible changes to Medicaid at federal level are \u2018biggest threat\u2019 to rural health care"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Southwest
Southwest Memorial Hospital offers a strong diabetes education program. (Photo by Southwest Health System)<\/span>Southwest Health System<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

At the Mancos Town Board meeting Jan. 22, Southwest Health System CEO Joe Theine updated the board on all things hospital, and \u201csome of the conundrum about the conversations they\u2019re having in Washington, and how that affects us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He specifically illustrated this through discussing the hospital\u2019s financials for 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect to have about $85 million in revenue,\u201d and most of that is contingent on people in the community \u201cchoosing to receive care somewhere in our health system,\u201d Theine said.<\/p>\n

Some of that figure \u2013 about $2 million \u2013 is expected to come from a sales tax, which can\u2019t be used for anything but paying off a bond debt from building the new part of the hospital.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also figuring in $4 million of \u201cphilanthropic giving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Theine then directed the board\u2019s attention to the screen, which had two charts on it, side by side. The pie chart on the right broke up the majority of revenue \u2013 $82,800,000 \u2013 that\u2019s expected to come from patients alone. It shows where, exactly, it\u2019s all coming from.<\/p>\n

\"Southwest
Southwest Health System\u2019s anticipated revenue for 2025. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThe one number I\u2019ll draw your attention to is 17%,\u201d Theine said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the amount of cash the hospital expects to collect from the Medicaid program.<\/p>\n

Theine said the new administration in Washington has \u201ca lot of focus on cutting costs,\u201d but not when it comes it Medicare, which funds adults 65 and older and some disabled people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s a lot of conversation right now on how to reduce spending on Medicaid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On President Donald Trump\u2019s first day in office, Jan. 23, he made history by signing more than 20 executive orders, which is more than any other president had signed before.<\/p>\n

That same day, Trump rescinded 78 executive orders that former President Joe Biden had approved.<\/p>\n

One of those orders he rescinded helped reduce the price of prescription medications, and another helped expand coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Another yet strengthened both the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, according to NPR<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zooming back into our area, Theine asked the board to consider what it would be like to have roughly 20% less income coming into their household.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the whole Medicaid program went away \u2013 which I don\u2019t expect that to happen \u2013 but if it did, and we had 20% less revenue effectively, it\u2019s not about, \u2018Well, we\u2019re not going to do this for those who are less fortunate.\u2019 It really becomes what things can\u2019t we do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd everybody in the community loses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Because without that chunk of revenue, the hospital might not be able to staff properly, or offer specialized care.<\/p>\n

\u201cElon Musk could walk in the door with his checkbook and say, \u2018What\u2019s it going to cost me to get this,\u2019\u201d Theine said. \u201cNo amount of money in that moment when you need health care will get you what you need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so if there\u2019s a substantial change in the Medicaid program at a federal level, that is one of the biggest threats to health care in rural communities right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t be a question of what things do we do less of, it will be what things can we just no longer provide,\u201d Theine said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018It won\u2019t be a question of what things do we do less of, it will be what things can we just no longer provide,\u2019 hospital CEO says <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78296,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23871\/revisions\/78296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23871"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}