In the last few weeks, Teton Valley Health Care in Driggs, Idaho, nearly shut down. That was until an anonymous donor stepped in.
“We were facing bankruptcy a few weeks ago,” said Nancy Osmundson, chief public relations director at TVHC. “We were looking at closing our doors.”
Osmundson said the donor and financial amount is not yet public, but could be in the next few weeks.
Soaring health care costs, slashed federal reimbursements, low patient volume and high rates of uncompensated care have compounded in a way experts say could be the “death knell” for many other rural hospitals facing the same pressures.
It almost was for Teton Valley’s hospital, and had it closed, the consequences could have been dire. The closest comparable facility that takes most Idahoans’ insurance is an hour-and-a-half drive south to Idaho Falls.
“If this community did not have a hospital, lives would be lost,” Osmundson said. “There’s no question.”
While philanthropy is saving the hospital, it’s not a permanent solution. TVHC is weighing its options for its longevity, from advocating for a new tax district to partnering with a larger hospital group. Continuing to operate independently is no longer viable, Osmundson said.
TVHC relies heavily on its foundation, where Osmundson is also the executive director. She said the individual donor’s support is what’s keeping the hospital afloat for now.
Still, the hospital is cash-strapped. In January, it closed its infusion clinic and laid off 26 staff members across departments. The hospital now employs 250 people.
Between October and December, at least 750 procedures had been performed in the infusion clinic, which is often used in chemotherapy, Osmundson said. The hospital put the clinic on pause because of the high cost of the medicine it requires, especially in the context of delayed and slashed federal reimbursements.
“When we have to put out $300,000 for some medications, we simply had to make the decision to stop infusion so we could use that cash for paying our staff,” Osmundson said. “It was a very difficult decision.”
Fifty-two percent of the hospital’s patients are on Medicare or Medicaid, which for TVHC means operating at a loss while waiting for reimbursements. With lower skier turnout due to winter’s low snowpack, patient volume is also down, thus hurting cash flow, according to Osmundson. Federal reimbursements for Medicaid, an already drawn-out process, were slashed 4% in Idaho in September, she added.
Osmundson said the tough decision to close the clinic was made to save the hospital altogether.
Hospitals had hoped to see money from the Rural Health Transformation Fund, a last-minute addition to last summer’s Big Beautiful Bill, by this spring. But now that timeline is looking more like October, Osmundson said.
At this rate, she’s given up hope that any of the $185 million awarded to the state of Idaho will ever reach the Driggs hospital. Instead, she anticipates suburban areas will dip into the pot, something she feels contradicts the purpose for which the fund was initially intended.
“There was a lot of excitement around it when it first came out,” said Osmundson, who has also run hospital foundations in rural Colorado. “Because I’ve worked in this philanthropy world for a long time, I was skeptical and it seems like it’s going the same way.”
