Maine relies heavily on rural hospitals, but a new mistake by the Biden administration could force rural hospitals in Maine and other states to close their doors. Imagine needing to drive an extra 50, 60, or 100 miles to get critical care — in a snowstorm in rural Maine.
The Biden administration has issued a new executive order that seeks to block hospital mergers, but the order ignores the simple fact that these mergers are a key tool in saving our rural hospitals. The order may mean that instead of having one hospital owned by a larger hospital group, many Maine regions could have zero hospitals.
If a community’s hospital is faced with closure, one tool for keeping the doors open is a merger, which the Biden administration is poised to block.
For example, here in Maine, two critical access hospitals are merging in order to ensure access to care for those living in some of Maine’s most vibrant rural communities. Calais Regional Hospital will be acquired by Down East Community Hospital in the hopes that Calais will be able to keep its doors open. Calais Regional, a critical access hospital, is the only hospital in the area, and if it were forced to close, the surrounding communities would no longer have access to hospital care. This merger will undoubtedly save lives.
Keeping rural hospitals open this way means preserving patient access to care and emergency services, providing integrated and coordinated care, and being able to revitalize poorly performing, outdated, or inefficient hospitals — without compromising patient care. In many cases, hospital mergers also reduce the cost of care without depriving consumers of the benefits of market competition.
These mergers and acquisitions are even more important for small rural hospitals, which usually do not have heavy funding streams and cater to a large geographical region.
Beyond the access issues, President Joe Biden’s plan to close rural hospitals flies in the face of medical data. A recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that for certain conditions such as acute myocardial infarctions, the mortality rate at hospitals post-merger dropped by almost 50%.
Jeff Austin, a senior executive at the Maine Hospital Association, has noted that 25% of its members have been operating in the red for at least the last 5 years. Mergers are without question a tool that will be used to keep some of these Maine hospitals from closing — unless the Biden administration gets its way.
Nationwide, 138 rural hospitals have closed since 2010; in 2020 alone, a record-breaking 21 rural hospitals shuttered. We’re lucky Maine has avoided closures in recent years — but only due to mergers.
That the Biden administration would try to take away this tool in rural Maine’s healthcare toolbox shows there’s a lack of understanding of rural healthcare at the White House.
The Biden administration should rethink its plan. I can tell you that in Maine, no one is in favor of having fewer hospitals in the exact places that cannot afford to lose them.
Josh Morris is a member of the Maine House of Representatives. He serves as the lead Republican on the Maine Legislature’s Committee on Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services.
