WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) discussed the various challenges health care providers and patients in rural America face with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald J. Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Specifically, Senator Barrasso and Mr. Kennedy discussed the threat of hospital closures and the lack of maternity services in rural and frontier communities. They also talked about the Biden administration’s shortsighted nursing home staffing mandate, which if implemented would result in nursing home closures in Wyoming and across rural America.
Kennedy’s confirmation hearing was held today by the Senate Committee on Finance.
On Challenges Facing Rural Hospitals and Patients:
“Thank you for taking the time to visit with me in my office prior to today’s hearing to talk about a lot of the important issues affecting health care in my home state of Wyoming, as well as the nation. I appreciate your willingness to serve our country.
“During our meeting, we discussed the challenges health care providers and patients are facing in rural America including: financial obstacles facing rural hospitals, workforce shortages, issues with OBGYN, and new regulations that are painful that came out of the Biden administration hurting our ability to provide nursing home staffing.
“Let me start off with rural hospitals and the closures of hospitals like that. There are a lot of challenges facing hospitals in rural communities and frontier areas.
“We have 33 hospitals in Wyoming. Twenty-six are located in various locations often hard to get to or weather impacts them. Six of the hospitals are at risk of closing, two are in immediate risk of closing in the next two years, and 10 have had to cut available services.
“This is a concern of rural hospitals both Republican and Democrat states. It’s bipartisan. It is critical that the financial, workforce challenges that we are facing are addressed.
“Can you commit to working with us on a plan to address this critical nationwide issue in rural healthcare?”
Follow-up on maternity services in rural areas:
“With financial strains on a local hospital, one of the common services to be cut in rural hospitals is maternity services. We have women in Wyoming having to drive over 100 miles to access care.
“Thirteen counties in Wyoming don’t have access to OB. Counties that are larger than the states of Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware.
“Will you commit to working with my office to find solutions to help address these specific maternal health challenges?”
Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks on rural hospitals and maternity services.
On Nursing Home Closures:
“Another issue we specifically spoke about is the harmful Biden administration rule that would have been really bad for our rural nursing homes.
“It is a rule that would triple the registered nurse requirements in nursing homes. There just are not enough registered nurses in our state to be able to comply with this. This would lead to nursing home closures across our state.
“Will you commit to working with me to fix this serious problem that would have been the result of a rule that came out by the Biden administration that clearly doesn’t understand rural America?”
Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks on nursing home closures.
###