The Hope Policy Institute recently published an article examining the longstanding under-investments in the United States Deep South. The article shares troubling data about the limited health care systems in the rural south, which has seen many hospitals close in the past decade, and those remaining often lack resources to handle anything above routine healthcare. Twenty-seven rural hospitals have closed across Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee since 2010.

The report cites the number of intensive care units (ICU) in the Deep South in particular. Nearly half of all Deep South counties either have no ICU or no hospital at all. ICU beds have been widely reported as vital to providing care to high risk COVID-19 patients. A closer look at these counties’ residents show consistent poverty and high numbers of non-white residents.

Among the existing rural hospitals is a shared concern that much needed federal aid will be diverted to large hospitals with better political connections or dedicated grant writing staff. An op-ed in The Hill opined that the newly rolled out CARES Act has serious questions about its disbursement. The CARES Act is a government grant program designed to give aid to hospitals and clinics overwhelmed by current or future COVID-19 patients.

How the $100 billion grant will be allocated is currently open ended and could depend as much on the strength of the grant application as the facility’s actual need. With rural hospitals understaffed, the labor-intensive application process could wall off CARES assistance, leaving areas with already persistent poverty to fend for themselves.

To read the Hope Policy Institute report, go here: http://hopepolicy.org/blog/standing-in-the-need-of-care/

To read the opinion editorial in The Hill, go here: https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/491523-relief-dollars-to-hospitals-will-not-be-distributed-proportionately