Rural hospitals express concerns over Biden mandate

By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square

Following President Joe Biden’s mandate that all private businesses with more than 100 employees require their workers to receive both COVID-19 doses or undergo weekly testing, two Texas panhandle hospitals have expressed concerns, including one fearing it may have to close its doors.

Brownfield Regional Medical Center CEO Jerry Jasper told KCBD News, “20% of my, probably 20 to 25%, of my staff will have to go away if that’s the case.” Losing 20% of his staff would likely cause the hospital, located in a rural area just southwest of Lubbock, to close, he said.

Rural hospital administrators have raised concerns statewide over inconsistent regulatory mandates and conflicting orders between federal and state governments. Prior to Biden’s order, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had issued an executive order prohibiting state and local entities from requiring COVID-19 vaccines as a condition of employment, vaccine passports, or the wearing of face coverings.

“No governmental entity can compel any individual to receive a COVID-19 vaccine administered under an emergency use authorization … No governmental entity, including a county, city, school district, and public health authority, and no government official may require any person to wear a face covering or mandate that another person wear a face covering,” Abbott’s order states.

Those who do are “subject to a fine up to $1,000.”

“How’s Governor Abbott going to take this? He hasn’t complied with anything federal laws have done so far. So, we’re going have to, here in Texas at least, we’re going to have to wait and see how that plays out,” Jasper told KCBD News.

Larry Gray, CEO of the Seminole Hospital District, south of Brownfield, pushed back on the federal mandate, saying it was “just a terrible message because if the vaccinations are working, why do you have to mandate people to get the vaccines? What happens to individual choice and medical decisions between the patient and their doctor, which is all of the things that we’re trying to support.”

Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have vowed to fight the federal vaccine mandate.

In addition to prohibiting state and local government entities from requiring COVID vaccination as a condition of employment, Abbott added vaccination requirements to the agenda for the state’s third special legislative session, which begins Monday.

Paxton said he is committed to the health and safety of all Texans and to safeguarding Texans’ right to individual liberty.

“An individual’s freedom to make personal decisions cannot be infringed,” he said, adding that Texas law allows Texans to have the right to choose whether they will get vaccinated.

He added that he would “continue to oppose the Biden Administration as Democrats demonstrate their willingness to sacrifice freedom for government control.”

Texas, the second-largest state by land area, already has a lack of access to medical care in many of its rural, less populated areas. According to the Texas Rural Health Association, there are 64 counties in Texas without a hospital and 25 counties without a primary care physician.

And 75% of Texas counties are federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) and/or Medically Underserved Areas.

If hospitals were to close in some areas, that could mean the majority of people in the area could lose their jobs.

The association notes that rural hospitals are often “one of the largest employers in a rural economy, typically one of the top two employers,” in a report on the economic impact of rural healthcare.