Duffy Keeps Rural Wis. Hospitals a Priority

Press Release

U.S. Representative Sean Duffy (WI-07) and rural Wisconsin hospitals came together Monday to discuss continued funding of accessible health care for patients living in the most rural areas of the state.

During a panel discussion at the Baldwin Area Medical Center, Rep. Duffy and administrators from more than a dozen of Wisconsin's Critical Access Hospitals questioned the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services' Chief Medical Officer for Region V, Dr. Robert Furno, about some of the toughest issues these hospitals face today.

"What this is about is making sure that CMS, the President, and everyone in Washington understand how important Critical Access Hospitals are to the rural part of the country and for us specifically in central, northern and western Wisconsin."

In his past three budgets, President Barack Obama proposed to eliminate the Critical Access Hospital designation for facilities that are within 10 miles of another hospital.

If passed, eight hospitals in Wisconsin would lose their Critical Access Hospital designation. Seven of those facilities are in the 7th Congressional District, which Congressman Duffy represents.

"If you look at it very simply, you might say, "well, there's great savings there.' But if you actually look at the cost of these patients traveling longer distances and the degradation of their status and the quality of care that they'll receive, I think we'd be hard pressed to say that we are actually saving money. I think we would have worse care that would cost more," Rep. Duffy said.

Rep. Duffy is asking U.S Department of Health and Human Services Regional Director Kathleen Falk, who joined the panel by news conference Monday, to travel to Wisconsin to see first hand the serious impact that losing this designation would have on a significant number of his constituents.

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