CEO Update: Saving People Money!

Thank you to everyone that was able to join us at the Forum!  It was so amazing to spend time with you.

You might have seen that The Office of Saving People Money on Healthcare, released a new roadmap.  A big focus is “saving people money.”  I believe we’ve been a bit short sighted in terms of thinking of saving people money.  For many of our rural communities, we should not only focus on savings on the premiums and bills, but also on keeping care local.

Unfortunately, some health insurance companies often create programs to encourage patients to receive care outside of their local communities in order to decrease healthcare costs and reduce insurance premiums.  For rural populations, it is important to consider the additional hidden cost affiliated with this concept, such as the patient’s time and money to travel further from their local community to receive care. Other costs to consider are lost wages due to travel, gas money, cost of food, and potential cost of accommodations.

While insurance companies have a cost saving of $200 from rural patients traveling to non-local hospitals, the patient has a cost burden upwards of $600.

Saving people money, should be not only about reducing premiums and bills, but about access to care.  By keeping care local you not only save people money, you save them time and you contribute to local economies.  For more information, please see CRHC’s Snapshot of Rural Health located at https://coruralhealth.org/snapshot-of-rural-health.