Medicaid cuts, declining reimbursements lead to layoffs at Teton Valley Health Care
DRIGGS, Idaho — Medicaid cuts and declining reimbursements are having a direct impact in Teton Valley, where Teton Valley Health Care has laid off some staff and closed a clinic amid ongoing financial challenges.
The hospital is one of the largest employers in the valley, but Chief Financial Officer and Chief Executive Officer of Teton Valley Health Care, Leianne Everett, says it is facing pressures similar to rural hospitals across the country. A major factor is a high percentage of patients covered by Medicare and Medicaid, along with reimbursement rates that do not fully cover the cost of care.
"Like many other rural health care facilities, we are in a situation where our reimbursements are declining. Fifty-two percent of our patients do come with Medicare or Medicaid as their coverage, which means that 52% of our population, we are not covering our cost on supplying those services to those patients. So, it has created a reliance upon our cash reserves," Everett said. "And then recently just based on the critical access hospital reimbursement mechanism it was determined by CMS that we owed them $1.2 million."
Everett, who is the CEO but also has served as the hospital’s CFO since 2023, said leadership has relied on data to determine whether vacant positions should be replaced or eliminated as part of these efforts.
As part of these cuts, the hospital also shut down its infusion clinic.
“In an attempt to look at how we can have enough money to pay the bills we’re encountering on a monthly basis, we were looking at our service lines,” Everett said. “The ability to order those expensive drugs, administer them, and then wait for reimbursement was not sustainable for us in our current situation. That’s why the decision was made.”
Everett says most of the major changes have already taken place. Moving forward, the hospital will continue evaluating individual service lines to determine whether they are financially sustainable.
If a service is not covering its costs, Everett said the hospital may explore options such as negotiating new contracts or making other adjustments to remain financially viable.
"I think that we do have a lot of county support. We're in a county that's growing. I think that together with the community support, we'll be able to figure out how to retain services. I am confident that we will not be closing our doors as a result of this. We're just going to have to restructure and figure out how to how to respond to the current market conditions," Everett said.
