Winona Health President/CEO participates in National Press Club briefing

Winona Health President/CEO, Rachelle Schultz, Ed.D., recently spoke at a National Press Club briefing in Washington, DC, about community healthcare and the challenges facing rural America. During the briefing, Schultz, who chairs the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) Section for Rural Hospitals, shared that if tens of millions more people were to be added to the uninsured rolls, hospitals would face even more budget pressure and possibly lose ground in their efforts to promote community health. From 2013 to 2016, Winona Health saw a 33% decline in uninsured patients and visits to the hospital Emergency Department fell. She noted that if Winonans were to lose coverage, these improvements in health and costs could be lost. “Without coverage, people delay seeking care until their health needs become emergencies,” Schultz said. “If people put off seeking care until they need emergency care, it would not only drive up the cost of health care for everyone, but, even more important, it would put individuals in a more difficult situation health-wise and could have a more devastating effect on families.” AHA Chairman, Gene Woods, noted that it was essential for members of congress to hear Winona Health’s story and to understand the potential impact on communities and rural hospitals if millions of Americans lost health insurance. The AHA is the national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals, health care networks, and their patients and communities. Its mission is to advance the health of individuals and communities. The AHA leads, represents and serves hospitals, health systems and other related organizations that are accountable to the community and committed to health improvement.

AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack; Winona Health President and CEO Rachelle Schultz, Ed.D.; AHA Executive Vice President Tom Nickels, and Ashley Thompson, AHA’s senior vice president for public policy analysis and development at a National Press Club briefing.