Dive Brief:
- Mayo Clinic plans to close six of its clinics in Minnesota by Dec. 10 and reduce services at its Albert Lea hospital, the nonprofit provider said Monday.
- The health system will shutter clinics in Belle Plaine, Caledonia, Montgomery, North Mankato, St. Peter, and Wells and stop offering elective surgeries and procedures in ophthalmology, gynecology, endoscopy, orthopedics and podiatry at the hospital and clinic in Albert Lea.
- Mayo said it is consolidating services in part to address lower patient volumes and staffing shortages. Consolidating services will help the system “strengthen rural health care delivery and ensure safe, high-quality and sustainable care for generations to come,” Mayo said.
Dive Insight:
A Mayo spokesperson said its changes will allow it to focus on care delivery where it has the infrastructure, staff and support in place to best serve patients.
“These decisions reflect the realities of delivering high-quality care in smaller communities today,” said Dr. Karthik Ghosh, vice president of Mayo Clinic Health System Minnesota.
The health system has created a frequently asked questions webpage for affected patients and said staff will receive guidance and support about the transition plan — as well as information about their “options.” It’s unclear whether there may be layoffs associated with the closures.
The closures speak to nationwide trends, in which rural medical centers often struggle to recruit talent compared to urban medical centers, according to the National Rural Health Association. As a result, while roughly 20% of Americans live in rural areas, only about nine percent of physicians practice in rural regions.
Physicians may be reluctant to take jobs in rural areas because the pay tends to be less competitive and advanced educational opportunities can be relatively scarce, according to the NRHA. However, without enough staff to meet patient demand, health systems at times have to cut services.
Over the past several years, rural providers have scaled back offerings, often opting to shutter maternity services first. A 2023 report from the Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform reported that more than 200 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies over the past decade. About half of those closures have happened since the end of 2020.
Experts warn that rural hospital cuts and closures could increase as implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act begins. Although Republicans tacked on $50 billion at the eleventh hour to transform rural health, public health analysts have warned that nothing in the law guarantees that money will flow to financially struggling rural hospitals.
Even if it does, $50 billion pales in comparison to the size of Medicaid cuts ushered in by the bill, experts say.
