Over the course of the last few months, rural healthcare has experienced more challenges than ever before. When money gets tight, as it has on both the federal and state levels, discussions start happening on what is important and what is not, what is efficient and what is not, and what is political and what is not. There have been so many proposed changes to the funding and operating controls on rural healthcare that we are forced to pick and choose which initiative to fight for or defend. We should be proud that our community led the state in defending cost based reimbursement for Critical Access Hospitals and it appears that we are winning the fight. There are other proposed cuts that we may not be as fortunate with but hopefully the impact will not be as dramatic. We know that change is inevitable but influencing the change is critical.

On a local level, the best way to help our health system is to use our health system. If something has stopped you from entering or continuing in our care, please let us know. We want you back.

~Charlie Button, CEO