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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWe know that health care will continue to be a top priority conversation at the state and national level because the costs of care are too high for patients, while hospitals and independent providers continue to struggle to make a sustainable operating margin and access to care is continually threatened,\u201d said Kayley Mendenhall, a spokesperson for St. Charles Health System. \u201cQuite simply, something needs to shift.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a loss<\/p>\n
Hospitals need to operate at a profit to continue to maintain equipment, add new services, keep buildings up to code and do renovations when physical space no longer fits their needs, according to Hultberg.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes what communities needed 20 years ago isn\u2019t the same service that that community needs today,\u201d Hultberg said. \u201cIn order to meet that need, you have to have a positive margin to be able to invest in those services.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the increase in medical supplies and labor costs and the decrease in insurance and Medicare payouts has made it difficult for hospitals to operate in the black.<\/p>\n
Oregon hospitals lost $3.2 billion serving Medicare patients in the last year alone, while and operating expenses have increased by 57.5% from 2020 to 2025, according to an analysis by the the Hospital Association of Oregon. <\/p>\n
Salaries at St. Charles rose by an average of roughly 16.9% and medical supply costs rose by 25.6% from 2024 to 2025. As costs continue to rise, so too do the needs.<\/p>\n
St. Charles saw total patient encounters increase by 21.4% \u2014 or 250,000 people \u2014 from 2024 to 2025. <\/p>\n
The health system needs to increase their bed capacity, especially in Bend and Redmond, by 66.6% by 2050 to accommodate estimated population increases across Central Oregon, according to the organization. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the need is very real, it\u2019s important for our community to understand that building for health care is incredibly time and resource intensive and involves many hurdles from a regulatory standpoint,\u201d Mendenhall said. \u201cWe will need community support to ensure we can meet the health care needs of the region into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
More, sicker patients<\/p>\n
The health system anticipates that cuts associated with One Big Beautiful Bill Act will continue to drive up hospital visits as people lose access to healthcare coverage and preventive care declines. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people lose health care coverage, they don\u2019t stop getting sick or needing care \u2013 they often just delay being seen by a doctor until they are very sick,\u201d Mendenhall said. \u201cWe anticipate that we will see more, sicker patients in our emergency departments \u2014 which are already often full today \u2014 and those patients will need a higher level of care when they do come through our doors.\u201d<\/p>\n
To create the funds needed to reinvest in the health system St. Charles has entered partnerships with the Central Oregon Health Council, Oregon Health & Science University, Mosaic Community Health and Deschutes County Health Services to expand services across Central Oregon. <\/p>\n
Recently the health system handed over management of their inpatient rehabilitation center to for-profit healthcare company LifePoint<\/a>, effective Aug. 1. The transition will expand inpatient rehabilitation capacity at the new Susan A. Ellings Inpatient Rehabilitation Center. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been partnering with the Lifepoint team and are excited about the operational improvements the team is providing to the service, which will be a benefit to patients,\u201d said Alandra Johnson, spokesperson for St. Charles. \u201cWe are also excited about the progress of the Susan A. Ellings Inpatient Rehabilitation Center, which is on track to open later this year and will expand inpatient rehabilitation capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n The health system would not disclose if the 12 occupational, speech, and physical therapists who previously worked in the unit were moved to another section of the hospital or if Lifepoint has hired new employees.<\/p>\n As hospitals continue to find creative ways to stay afloat amid a financial crisis in healthcare the Hospital Association of Oregon is recommending that policymakers protect and strengthen Medicaid payments to hospitals, reduce unnecessary administration or bureaucracy and hold insurers accountable to prevent further losses.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery single hospital in rural Oregon is important, and we want to help and do the best we can to keep all of those hospitals viable,\u201d Hultberg said.<\/p>\n Have you experienced a recent loss of healthcare coverage or have struggled with late or denied insurance payouts? Healthcare reporter Emily Rogers is working on a story about the changes to health insurance and the way the One Big Beautiful Bill is impacting local\u2019s access to care. If you would like to share your story you can contact Rogers at emily.rogers@bendbulletin.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oregon hospitals lost $450 million in 2025 and continue to report extremely low profit margins as the One…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-807177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}