Ascension Via Christi is stopping their emergency department services in Fort Scott at the end of this year.

But a new healthcare system is coming to replace the services.

At this week’s special City of Fort Scott Commission meeting, Mayor Matthew Wells said “It is public knowledge at this point that Amberwell is the company that we are partnering with, their home office is in Atchison, Kansas.”

The city approved $600,000 for its part in the new E.R. services in a Memorandum of Understanding.

Other entities

At a special Bourbon County Commission meeting this week the commissioners approved $500,000 towards the new E.R. services.

“The administration and Board of Trustees at Fort Scott Community College recognize the importance and need for there to be an active emergency room in the county,” Dr. Jason Kegler, President of Fort Scott Community Colleges said. “We understand the benefit this provides to our guests, students and staff. The college remains mindful of the financial responsibility we have to the citizens of this county. We will have internal discussions about how best for us to partner with other entities to ensure the continued presence of an emergency room in this county.”

Because of public school finance laws  USD 234 is unable to help financially, Destry Brown, Superintendent said. “We do support it, but we can’t help with it financially.”

About Amberwell

Amberwell Health has a mission to sustain and strengthen rural healthcare, through affiliation with clinically integrated organizations that share services, expertise, and group savings while retaining local operational management,  according to its website.

As of January 2022, Amberwell had 650 employees serving across seven locations in six communities in northeast Kansas, according to the website.

Problems in healthcare

“Kansas has 104 rural hospitals – and more than 80% of them are losing money, according to the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, a nonprofit think-tank,” Mayor Wells said. “More than half are deemed to be at risk of closing this year.”

“The biggest problems for rural hospitals (are) a combined high percentage of Medicare and Medicaid patients and payments from private insurance companies that, like those from government programs, don’t cover the cost of providing services, Wells said.
“Under the new federal program, we could qualify for a subsidy of approximately $2.2 million a year plus a 3% increase in Medicare payments by becoming a federally designated Rural Emergency Hospital. However, we must be a functioning rural hospital that meets these conditions. To qualify, this organization we are partnering with will provide these services.”

“The Kansas Hospital Association (https://www.kha-net.org/) estimates that Kansas would have received an additional $6.2 billion in federal funding if it had expanded Medicaid when the opportunity arose in 2014,” Wells said. “I ask you to start pressing the state legislature to make this happen, for our community, for our people.”

 

“We are so thankful that Ascension has helped provide the E.R. to date, but they too have been subsidized with free rent and free utilities by Legacy Health,” Wells said.

Amberwell will also receive this benefit, he said.

“On top of the E.R., this is one of the greatest needs: primary care doctors for us citizens,” Wells said. “We are also told that Amberwell has the ability, because of the way it has set itself up to create single-payer systems, that allow people to pay directly for services without having to have insurance. Many of the businesses showed extreme interest in this model, and one said it would save them a lot of money.”