The majority of patients that come into St. Joseph's Hospital in Elmira are on medicare or medicaid. But there's often not enough patients coming through the doors for the hospital to cover the cost of care. It's a challenging model for rural hospitals. "We have to be financially sustainable first and foremost if we're going to be successful at our mission," Arnot Health CEO Bob Lambert said. "Our mission really being to give accessible, affordable, high quality, and compassionate care to all those patients we serve." Tuesday Congressman Tom Reed promoted a bill to help hospital's like St. Josephs. The Rural Hospital Access Act would permanently extend the Medicare Dependent Hospital and Low-Volume Hospital programs.
