A new federal law will protect crucial funding for Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital after the facility's critical access designation was threatened by a federal remeasurement of its distance to other hospitals.
The Critical Access Hospital designation allows the facility to receive higher Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates, which are essential for the facility's financial stability and ability to serve the community.
"What the Critical Access Hospital designation does for us is allow us to bill Medicare and Medicaid at a higher reimbursement rate," said Katie Gorndt, Vice President and Director of Nursing. "It's a cost-based reimbursement. The intention of it is to provide better reimbursements to hospitals, smaller hospitals that are at risk of being in financial struggles."
The designation came under threat when federal officials recalculated how far away the Santa Ynez Valley hospital is from other hospitals, putting the key status and its associated funding in jeopardy.
Katie Lozano, Clinical Manager of Surgical Services, said losing the hospital's services would create significant barriers for residents.
"It could be hard for access to care if we weren't here," Lozano said. "It could mean a delay in people's care due to trying to arrange family and caregivers and things like that."
The hospital serves not only local residents but also the area's substantial tourist population.
"We have over 5 million tourists a year coming through Solvang and so having health care and emergency services is huge," said Solvang Mayor David Brown. "It's required."
On Wednesday, Senator Adam Schiff visited the hospital and explained how new legislation protects the facility's status and funding.
"I introduced legislation that would grandfather in this one that had critical access health care designation," Sen. Schiff said.
Schiff said losing the status could have meant a loss of millions of dollars to the hospital. He added that the measure was bipartisan and moved through Congress after appeals within the federal agency didn't change the decision.
"The only thing that changes is someone remeasured the distance, but for a community like this to financially jeopardize the hospital that saves lives and has been such a community resource for generations would be a tragedy," Schiff said.
Hospital leaders say now that their designation is staying in place, they can move forward with plans they'd put on hold, including expanding emergency care services and growing ambulatory care.
