CVCH Photo Accompanies Article on Rural Hospitals

Arizona Capitol Times is running a story about the vulnerability of rural hospitals to budget cuts. The article is accompanied by a photograph of Cobre Valley Community Hospital. The article says that state and federal programs that have helped support these hospitals are being threatened by possible budget cuts.

Arizona has a program that provides supplemental funding for hospitals with fewer than 100 in-patient beds located in counties with populations of less than 500,000. The state’s SAVE program—which stands for Safe, Accessible, Visible and Efficient—is on the short list of state health programs to be cut. The Critical Access Hospital Program created by Congress in 1997 is also threatened by cuts.

State health officials have warned Governor Brewer that these cuts could force rural hospitals to shut down.