NVH Newsletter June 2025

Healthcare in Crisis?

If you follow the news, you are likely seeing announcements from healthcare organizations about layoffs and closures, including some in Washington. Rising costs and declining reimbursements are creating a challenging reality for hospitals across the country.

Inflation, tariffs, increased fees, and taxes will make controlling costs difficult. On the reimbursement side, a significant effort is underway at the federal level to cut Medicaid spending. The two areas that seem most likely to impact us are work requirements for Medicaid patients and state-directed payment programs.

While many Medicaid patients are already working, the extra bureaucracy of proving eligibility and tighter restrictions are expected to reduce the number of patients covered. Washington State has expansive Charity Care laws that will mean that, as fewer people are on Medicaid, their hospital care will still be provided, but the hospitals will not be compensated.

State-directed payment programs, which are Medicaid supplemental programs, have become a target for cost-cutting measures. In Washington, we benefit from the Safety Net Assessment Program and Nursing Home Pro Share, which increase the payments for services provided to Medicaid patients.

Nearly 30% of Okanogan County residents are covered by Medicaid, which in Washington is also called Apple Health. Cuts to Medicaid will make it more challenging for rural hospitals to continue providing care to their communities.

At NVH, we are working to avoid a crisis by canceling some vendor contracts, consolidating a few positions, instituting a non-clinical hiring freeze, and a wage freeze for leadership positions. We discussed other potential actions and identified opportunities for service expansion, cost reduction, and enhancements to the revenue cycle. Based on these ideas, we have several projects underway to identify opportunities for improvement.

We also encourage anyone concerned about rural healthcare to contact their representatives.

Keeping Care Local:

Another great way to support your local healthcare organizations is to utilize their services. This keeps the revenue in your community and also saves patients from travel costs. For non-medical individuals or those with good health, it can be challenging to keep track of the services available in our communities.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but here are the primary services that NVH provides:

• Hospital Care

  • Acute Hospitalizations

  • Swing Bed (post-acute skilled nursing with rehab)

  • Emergency Care

• Extended Care

  • Nursing Home Services

• Outpatient Services

  • General Surgery

  • Endoscopy

  • Lab

  • Radiology

    • X-rays, CT, Mammograms, Bone Density, Ultrasound,

  • Wound Care

  • Sleep Medicine

  • Primary Care

  • Allied Health

    • Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, and Nutrition Therapy

If you’re unsure, double-check with your primary care provider to see if you can receive the service you need locally.

Ribbon Cutting:

Join the City of Tonasket on June 26th at 2pm for the Perfect Passage Ribbon Cutting. We are eagerly awaiting the reopening of the road, but access for patients has already improved with the new sidewalks in place. If you are coming to our campus, be mindful of the ongoing work, and come join us to celebrate the end of this year’s road construction!