How the ACA impacted one rural Pennsylvania hospital
Kendra Aucker is the President and CEO of Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. She says the hospital is an irreplaceable resource for the community. A place that brings residents together.
“Whenever I go out in public people say we love the hospital. Nothing is going to happen to the hospital, right?”
But, prior to the introduction of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the rural community hospital was feeling a financial pinch. Aucker says with no insurance mandate and a growing number of uninsured individuals in Pennsylvania, the emergency room was the de facto place for care.
“At Evangelical our bad debt write-offs for un and underinsured as well as our charitable care is about $11 million a year. That number kept increasing,” says Aucker.
While there are certainly mixed feelings on the Affordable Care Act, Aucker says it has had positive effects on Evangelical Community Hospital.
“There were a lot of really positive things that happened and our charitable care and bad debt kind of leveled off.”
Now, with the future of healthcare in question, Aucker finds herself wishing she had a crystal ball.
