With Medicaid expansion not moving in the Legislature, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly says the upcoming closure of CareArc’s Eureka Health Clinic is a symptom of what has happened because of legislative inaction.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the governor says the Eureka closure at the end of February demonstrates why Medicaid should be expanded as soon as possible, adding the clinic could have had help recruiting and retaining employees had Medicaid been expanded by now. Instead, she says residents who relied on the Eureka clinic have to drive longer distances or have increased wait times for basic care.
The governor also asked how many rural hospitals, clinics and emergency rooms have to close before lawmakers take the issue seriously, saying there has been “higher revenue, greater operational capacity and more financial stability” as well as expanded services in expansion states versus those that have not expanded. She also says federally qualified health centers like CareArc see more revenue after expansion.
CareArc CEO Renee Hively says Medicaid expansion would have helped the Eureka clinic get closer to a break-even level, but the main reasons for the closure were decreases in population density and productivity as well as increasing issues recruiting providers to a “frontier county.”
