Texans in rural communities are facing an ongoing crisis as hospitals and medical facilities shutter. An analysis by the American Public Media Research Lab data shows that since 2005, 24 rural hospitals have closed in the state, which is the highest number of closures in the country.
Tucked away in the back of Van Zandt Regional Hospital, a small East Texas hospital, is a quaint makeshift bedroom that is reminiscent of a nun’s quarters.
A desk lamp illuminates the extra-long twin-sized hospital bed with the white sheets neatly pulled tight over the mattress. Hats are strewn about the large wooden vanity in the room, and a Bible is placed beside the window, with pages fanning out from its daily use.
These are the temporary living quarters for the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Randy Lindauer. The unassuming, Indiana-native has worked his way across the country, resuscitating rural hospitals in Kansas, Florida, West Virginia and Indiana all of which are still up and running. Van Zandt Regional Hospital in Grand Saline, TX is his most recent project.
The Medicare Cost Reports that have been performed over the last couple of years for the Johnson County Healthcare Center have been a boon to the facility, netting nearly $2 million in under-payments that have come back to them.
Mark Lyons, with Casey Peterson CPAs, which compiled the reports, spoke to the hospital board of trustees at their recent meeting to explain what has happened over the time they have performed the reviews and how that was a benefit to the facility.
Lyons told the board not to expect returns on Medicare cost report reconciliations in the future like they have recently seen.