Nebraska’s hospitals are facing a number of challenges due to a number of factors, including record inflation, workforce challenges, and difficulty in placing patients. Reimbursements rates are not keeping pace with inflation, and payers have begun cutting telehealth payments in half of what they were previously reimbursing during the pandemic.
“All of these issues combine to create a very challenging financial environment for our hospitals here in the state,” said Jeremy Nordquist, President of the Nebraska Hospital Association, in a virtual conference with media on Tuesday morning.
A projected shortage of nurses by 2025 is a very real threat to Nebraska’s hospitals, and Nordquist says hospitals must take action now.
“We have to work to open up more clinical training sites in rural Nebraska, so that we train people in the communities where we need them in the future. We need to promote health professions to K-12 students,” said Nordquist.
Nordquist lauded the efforts of the state’s hospital leaders but added that its medical facilities need more help from local and US policymakers.
“Without support from state and federal policymakers, our hospitals are going to get to a point where they’re going to have to make very, very tough decisions about the services they can provide in our state. Especially in our rural communities,” said Nordquist.
“It’s essential that our elected officials understand this problem and start taking action.”