Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: A forum on attracting and keeping medical professionals in Humboldt county featured a panel whose members framed local health care struggles in the context of greater systemic failure. The nation's approach to health care figured prominently in a Jan. 27 forum organized and hosted by 4th District County Supervisor Natalie Arroyo.
Audience attendance was on an RSVP basis, but the forum was livestreamed. It offered perspectives on the status of county health care from eight hospital and medical facility managers.
Posing questions from audience members, Arroyo asked the panelists what the points of pain are in providing local health care. A systemic malaise was described. Matthew Rees, CEO of the Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District, highlighted reimbursement, inadequacy, Medicare.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Medi cal financing and payment structures and other things are kind of ridiculous. When a medi cal person comes in my ER, I get about 15% of my cost.
That's my cost. That's not of my charges. I get 15% of my cost. And I've got a state report that I file, the 951 that I file with the state every year. So the state's well aware that they're paying me 15% of my costs. They haven't given hospitals an increase in over 13 years, and they expect us to meet the seismic requirements. They expect us to meet the new minimum wage for healthcare workers, $25 an hour. They expect all these things to just happen magically without any reimbursement to us.
And so that's a real struggle that we have.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Noting the struggles of patients, County Health Officer Dr. Candy Stockton said frustration is so understandable because as a person receiving health care, it sucks sometimes to be stuck within the system that we're in. Drawing applause, she said, there are no easy answers to this. But I would say that the pain point really fundamentally is that we won't treat health care like it's a human right in this country, in spite of the fact that that's what we all want for ourselves and our community and our famil.
Seth Whitmer, CEO of Redwoods Rural Health center, talked about the challenges and the rewards of healthcare work.
[00:02:33] Speaker C: It's just that healthcare is incredibly complex. It's not easy, and it's hard to communicate that to people. And when people are frustrated with it, it's like, look, this is healthcare working exactly as we've designed it to be.
And that's the unfortunate story, and none of us can really fix that. And that's the other unfortunate bit of the story, right? But we, we all love what we do. You know, I love what I do. It is so much fun because I love helping people and I love seeing the positive change that I am able to affect, which is the culture. But can I really change health care?
Not really. I can't change the payment system. Right. I can't change how it's structured throughout the country, but I can make a small positive impact.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: Tori Star, CEO of Open Door Community Health Centers, said due to the financial realities, quote, we get forced to actually do things that may not necessarily be in the best interests of delivering care. And he added, quote, we have a byzantine system of reimbursement in America and that is not conducive to delivering good care. But later in the forum, the panelists expressed positive takes on Humboldt County's healthcare and its future. While appreciative of what she described as the positive spin, Arroyo tempered it.
[00:04:06] Speaker D: Hopefully, it's uplifting to people to hear that you're all working together and there's a regional approach and there's some of these collaboration strategies. And I also want to acknowledge, I feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that a lot of people are tuning in today, are going to watch this footage or are here today because they've had a lot of difficulty and you all have had a lot of difficulty in interviewing each of you. I've heard the part that's less rosy and even sounded at times desperate to get your head above water.
I don't want to be cavalier about that, I guess I don't think we are. I appreciate that we're trying to close on a high note.
Just want to kind of acknowledge to all of you into the community that we're hearing a lot of serious challenges for people in our community where they're just not getting what they need.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: Arroyo said she's, quote, committed to continuing the conversation and another forum is planned.
For KMUD News, this is Daniel Mintz.
