For a period of eight months following the closure of the Sioux San Hospital emergency room in Rapid City, Regional Health officials say they covered over 25-hundred IHS eligible patients.
Mike Diedrich is the vice president of governmental affairs from Regional Health.
Diedrich says ER care for Indian Health Service eligible patients is swallowed by the hospital.
“The charges to provide that care was $6.5 million approximately," Deidrich says. "During that same period of time, out of that 2,544 encounters, IHS reimbursed Regional Health for 371 [patients] in an amount of $451,000. So, that shows you the gap and some of the impact.”
Diedrich says Regional Health provides IHS a monthly loan of 700-thousand dollars a month, which goes uncompensated.
IHS officials announced last month that they’re starting the year long process of formally closing the emergency room and in-patient care facility in the Sioux San hospital.
IHS officials were not immediately available for comment.