This month’s Community Leadership Forum at Sierra College was titled: “How Will Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital Survive: The Rural Healthcare Crisis”. But Hospital CEO, Doctor Scott Neeley indicated to the audience that while over 600 rural hospitals nationwide are threatened with closure, there are no major worries here at this point. He said technological abilities to help people have increased substantially, as well as the medical effectiveness of treatments. However, it continues to be more costly…

click to listen to Doctor Neeley

Neeley acknowledged that health care is becoming increasingly unaffordable, even for people making good money and with good insurance. But solutions are elusive…

click to listen to Doctor Neeley

Neeley also stated that 59-percent of discharged patients are on Medicare and 23-percent on Medi-Cal and reimbursements from government plans remain low. He said the hospital loses over 57-hundred dollars per Medicare patient, on average. Meanwhile, only 14-percent are commercially insured, but they contribute 71-percent of reimbursements. Neeley said the hospital has been able to survive by having more patient volume, compared to most rural hospitals. It’s also helped that they’re now part of the fifth-largest healthcare system in the country, Dignity Health.