Nikole Babb, nbabb@cherryroad.com

On Friday morning, October 17, Senator Jerry Moran stopped in El Dorado to visit Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital, (SBAMH), staff and Board of Trustees to discuss the importance of rural healthcare.

Sen. Moran began the round table discussion by expressing appreciation and gratitude for SBAMH’s leadership and effort in preserving the community’s assets, referring to the hospital. He emphasized the importance of access to healthcare in rural settings.

“Attracting families is drastically reduced when access to healthcare isn’t available,” said Senator Moran.

He encouraged the team at SBAMH in their hard work and close collaboration with his team over the last year in securing the approval of the 2025 provider tax preprint. The tax preprint allows the state to draw down federal matching funds to match the provider tax at six percent.

Senator Moran stated this will bring $5 billion to Kansas hospitals over the next five years.

“I made a lot of phone calls during that time and staff kept us updated every step of the way,” said Melissa Hall, CEO of SBAMH. “It kept us encouraged that it would actually happen.”

The group also discussed utilizing the 340B Drug Pricing Program this past summer. The 340B program allows entities such as hospitals to purchase medical drugs at a discount to stretch federal funds and enables more access to healthcare for patients.

More than 90 hospitals in Kansas utilize this program, which is not funded by taxpayer dollars.

“Hospitals our size that are in locations like this are truly valuable,” said Hall. “If we didn’t exist, the burden to find an empty bed for patients would be even more and emergency rooms would back up more.”

SBAMH was designated as a 340B hospital in recent months and will see benefits from it in the near future.