Investigation Requested by Sen. McCaskill Finds Missouri’s Lack of Medicaid Expansion Key Factor in Closure of Rural Hospitals

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 -- The office of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, issued the following news release:

An investigation into the challenges facing rural hospitals done by the government's top watchdog at the request of U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill found that the lack of Medicaid expansion was a key factor in the financial stability of rural hospitals.

Since 2010, Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center in Kennett, SoutheastHEALTH Center of Reynolds County, Parkland Health Center-Weber Road in Farmington, and Sac-Osage Hospital in Osceola have closed due to financial struggles. Over two million Missouri residents rely on rural hospitals, and 41 percent of the state's hospitals are in rural areas.

"This report confirms what I've heard from Missouri's medical health experts for years--that without expansion of Medicaid, our rural hospitals would struggle to survive," McCaskill said. "I've worked across the aisle and fought to expand healthcare access for Missourians, but Jefferson City refused to act, and we've since lost vital access to four hospitals."

The report by the Government Accountability Office, which McCaskill requested last year, states, "Medicaid expansion was associated with improved hospital financial performance and substantially lower likelihood of closure, especially in rural markets and counties with large numbers of uninsured adults before Medicaid expansion."

McCaskill has been a longtime advocate for improving access to quality healthcare in rural communities. McCaskill supported a bipartisan proposal to improve Missourians' access to care by expanding telehealth services in Medicare, and backed a proposal that would increase the number of doctors in rural Missouri. McCaskill cosponsored the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act to loosen caps on the number of Medicare-backed graduate medical training slots and increase the number of Medicare-backed medical residents.

Additionally, McCaskill introduced the bipartisan Hospital Payment Fairness Act that would repeal a provision of the Affordable Care Act that causes states, including Missouri, to subsidize high wages at hospitals through Medicare reimbursement rates.