CEO Update: Women’s History Month

CRHC recently released the 2026 Regional Snapshots of Rural Health which can be downloaded at our website https://coruralhealth.org/2026-regional-snapshots.  Each year, these Regional Snapshots provide a small glimpse of the number of people that live in the region, the number of counties represented, the average life expectancy, percentage of the rural population and more. This year our team took a dive into the number of hospitals with current OB units and number of OB units that have closed since 2018.

With March being Women’s History Month, I thought it would be important to point out some challenges that continue to exist for women in the U.S. which represent nearly 50% of the total U.S. population.  In rural Colorado, women struggle to have access to OB services as this is often one of the of first service lines to be eliminated when a rural hospital struggles financially.  And in Colorado we currently have 20 of our 43 rural hospitals operating in the red.  Only 17 of the 43 rural hospitals in Colorado (39.5%) have a hospital OB department.  In Colorado, 1 in 2 women (45%) live over 30 minutes from the nearest birthing hospital or center.  Travelling over 37 miles distance shows a 22% increased risk of adverse maternal outcomes and 50 miles moves the number to a 53% increase.

We know that low Medicaid reimbursement rates and high staffing and insurance costs are significant barriers to keeping OB units open in rural hospitals.  And we know that Medicaid reimbursement rates are about to get much worse in the coming years.  The Regional Snapshots provide helpful insights into rate cuts in our distinct rural regions of Colorado based on available data.  These cuts do not take into account any potential cuts that are also coming from the state due to the $1.5 billion deficit budget Colorado is facing.

While no easy answers exist, we have opportunities through the Rural Health Transformation Funding (RHTP) that Colorado received. These opportunities exist in the form of exploring new ways of offering access to care for services such as OB.  To learn more about the RHTP please visit HCPF’s website at https://hcpf.colorado.gov/rural-health-transformation-program.  To learn more about how rural hospitals are working on innovative approaches join us at our upcoming Annual Rural Health Conference at https://coruralhealth.org/the-colorado-rural-healthcare-conference.