Who would have thunk? Just a year ago we were closing out 2019 and thinking “oh my how difficult 2019 has been with cash short, reimbursement complicated and payroll having been put in Jeopardy.”
And then along came the Pandemic around Coved 19. The first three months were short of cash. As many as six hospitals faced serious financial issues around payroll until mid-April and then along came the Cares Act, the PPP program and the Medicare Advantage Accelerated Payment Program All these came with millions of dollars federal advance payments. Then came confusion as to what to do with it and how to or where to spend it. Then the summer surge hit. Then hospital capacity turned south and then the Fall turned into a new normal of crisis and a realization that the new money could soon run out in earlier 2021.
This was all accompanied by staff shortages, insufficient beds, cross state transfers of patients, PPE shortages and community confusion.
With all that said, HomeTown had the honor and pleasure of working in the trenches with you every day. Our virtual platform went into high gear. Several very positive initiatives have occurred from HomeTown’s standpoint. They include education. Absent good education and transparency, the people become frazzled and uncertain in their path. HomeTown addressed this with the fact that in 2020 HomeTown conducted 300 webinars including monthly Medicare and Medicaid webinars and then 100’s of individually developed subject matter webinars.
HomeTown worked with insurers in getting PPEs’ to you as well and worked with insurers in solving complex reimbursement matters that made it possible to minimize your finance problems. Not only that, but we worked with you to create the Hospital Vegetable program that now numbers about ten hospital participants. We have also worked to help developed the SCRUBS program whereby, with the support of a large chemical company we helped develop the upcoming distribution of microbially treated scrubs that will be coming to some of you from major cotton producing counties in February.
Then there have been the many HomeTown Sixty Business Partners who have come to your assistance during this trying time. They too have been in the trenches with joy delivering vegetables, monitoring chronic patients, and identifying claims to recover cash to name a few.
While the pandemic reared its ugly head, HomeTown did immediately, to the date, convert to a four-day totally virtual 2020 Spring Meeting that was scheduled for Jekyll. Although we did not like to make that change to virtual, we held the Spring Meeting virtually and had as many people attending virtually for four consecutive days as we normally did when done face to face. And……your evaluations were outstanding! But—- you said to revert back to the face-to-face meeting as soon as possible.
But most of all has been the dedication of the HomeTown Team who have converted total virtual problem solving at 2/24- and 365-day problem solving. The best example of their dedication was their plan to conduct the HTH Fall Meeting at Callaway. You had pleaded with us to conduct the meeting face to face. Interestingly, you said that the networking face to face had more meaning than we ever imagined. We planned it with the most rigorous of protocols and you came in droves. In fact, we had almost as many in the Fall at Callaway as we normally do. But must important—— we had no infection of virus and all came and went healthy and well and educated.
Through it all, we have performed with dedication to help you in every way possible and it has worked. With sadness, we had two more rural hospitals to close. Both closed due to a legacy of financial issues that may date back more than twenty years. Nevertheless, it was a tough pill to swallow. Life has gone on with adaptations at every corner in the road. The challenges continue with urban and rural separations. Simultaneously, the feds have announced the need to transform rural health care and we at HomeTown are leading the research in that regard.
All the while we have continued the advocacy and lobbying for rural policy and initiatives, we even conducted a virtual policy maker tour. We stayed in touch with your legislators and also with your board members where we taught board members about how to be compliant in the newly legislated Hospital Board Training.
So, then now comes 2021.What will it bring? The COMING new year looks a lot like the old year. More pandemic but with the hope of a vaccine. The various monies may start to run out creating hospitals’ cash difficulties. Transformation of the rural health care system will accelerate. Staff shortages will continue. Technology will accelerate especially in telehealth in the form of telemedicine and telemonitoring.. Unfortunately, there may even be another hospital closure or two. Patient care will move more to community health care and population management.
Through it all , HomeTown continues to dedicate itself to rural only health care delivery. We have the team. A recent study that we did told us that we at HomeTown have more than 350 years of health care experience serving in many states. Our technology and understanding of complex payment issues has continued to grow. Education has soared with our thousands of students and 100’s of online courses. On many days we have held more than five webinars in a single day at your request to get solutions to without you having to leave your workplace.
Having said all of this, HomeTown is more committed than ever to your success and survival in 2021. We are dedicated to Rural health care’s survival. We believe in you. We laugh with you and cry with you as the ebbs and flows of rural health care proceed.
We are prepared for the future because there will be a future! Your patients demand and deserve the best that we can offer. Then, through all of these times we come to the triumvirate of celebrations and that is Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. So, it is with these in mind that we commit to you full speed ahead energy for 2021 with Thanksgiving in our heart, and a worship for the Christ child at Christmas and a regeneration of the soul for a New Year!
So, at HomeTown Health, we say thank you for allowing us to have the honor of serving you and your hospitals through this year. We are at your ready, beck, and call. We are committed to helping make 2021 the very best it can possibly be given the many talents and commitments we have at HomeTown.
Thus, HomeTown prayerfully wishes for you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!