N.C. hospital says it's closing because state didn't expand Medicaid

Hospital leaders have warned state elected officials that failure to expand their Medicaid programs under the federal healthcare reform law will imperil the finances of many hospitals serving lower-income communities. They say they need the expansion to continue serving uninsured and underinsured people who have no way to pay for care.

Now a not-for-profit hospital system in North Carolina says it's closing one of its facilities because that state decided not to expand Medicaid to adults earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level. Vidant Health, with nine hospitals, says it will close Vidant Pungo Hospital, a 25-bed facility in the coastal town of Belhaven, within six months, costing about 100 employees their jobs.

Vidant CEO David Herman said his system will close the 60-year-old hospital because Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and the Republican-controlled legislature decided in March not to expand Medicaid for about 500,000 low-income residents. The hospital serves eastern Beaufort and Hyde counties, serving about 25,000 people over nearly 1,260 square miles.

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, coverage for the Medicaid expansion population would be paid for 100% by the federal government for the first three years, and 90% after that.

Vidant plans to replace the hospital with a small outpatient clinic in Belhaven. But patients needing emergency care would need to travel to another Vidant hospital 26 miles away.

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