ATLANTA — To help ease the financial burden and play a small part in the success of rural hospitals, Windham Brannon donated $140,000 through the Georgia Rural Hospital Tax Program (Georgia HEART). Fourteen hospitals were awarded $10,000 from this donation. The funds were designated to specifically help rural facilities around the state.

Hospitals that received funds included Archbold Memorial Hospital in Thomasville.It can be life or death for rural communities when a hospital closes. When communities lose access to healthcare and resources, patients’ only options become to drive to the next town or even the next state. They may forego preventive healthcare or await the only ambulance in town during a dire medical situation. 

Within the last decade, eight rural hospitals have closed in Georgia, and in the next decade, another 10 could close, HomeTown Health, a rural health association, told Kaiser News. Becker’s Review points out that two of those closed in 2020, during the height of the pandemic. The outlook for rural hospitals remains dismal: 20% of these hospitals in the United States are at risk of losing services or closing, according to a new Bipartisan Policy Center report.

Other hospitals receiving funds include AdventHealth Murray (Murray Medical Center), Colquitt Regional Medical Center, Crisp Regional Hospital, Elbert Memorial Hospital, Floyd Polk Medical Center, Hospital Authority of Miller County, Jefferson Hospital, Monroe County Hospital, Morgan Medical Center in Madison, Stephens County Hospital, Tift Regional Medical Center, Union General Hospital and Upson Regional Medical Center.

“There’s no doubt rural hospitals play a critical role in the community,” said Danielle Epps, healthcare practice co-leader at Windham Brannon. “Many counties do not have a physician on hand and patients with emergent situations are forced to either wait on an ambulance or drive an hour or more to the nearest healthcare facility.

“Georgia has about 60 rural hospitals and each one is vital infrastructure to the state’s well-being,” Epps said. “Communities need their hospitals to remain in business.”

Access to healthcare in rural areas is dependent on the financial well-being of hospitals. To help, Windham Brannon’s healthcare advisors work with rural hospitals to discover revenue leakage and identify process inefficiencies that cause financial impairment.

Revenue leakage, which stems from things such as manual processes, not capturing and billing all services, coding errors, and much more, can reduce a hospital’s revenue by up to 10% annually. Add to that the negative impacts of COVID-19 these almost past two years and the financial losses are sizable.

“We aim to make a difference for healthcare providers through our financial operations expertise,” Epps said. “We’re honored to be able to help these facilities in a small part through our donation to Georgia HEART.”

Learn more on how you can support rural hospitals through the Georgia HEART program.