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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Press release finds drama in paper shuffle

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 1/16/25

ELY— This week’s drama over a purported threat to the Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital’s status as a critical access hospital, appears to be more of a paperwork shuffle than an …

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Press release finds drama in paper shuffle

Posted

ELY— This week’s drama over a purported threat to the Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital’s status as a critical access hospital, appears to be more of a paperwork shuffle than an actual threat to the hospital’s designation.
A change in the designation of St. Louis County by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), had left a total of four small town hospitals in St. Louis County, including facilities in Cook and Aurora in addition to Ely, facing the potential loss of the critical access status, which provides rural hospitals with a higher rate of reimbursement for many services.
The Minnesota Dept. of Health had notified affected hospitals in the county of the change back in December, and informed them of the process for reapplication for the status. That designation appears to have never been in doubt, since the hospitals involved all met the rural designation under state law, which is what determines their eligibility.
While northern St. Louis County is sparsely populated and would certainly meet most definitions of rural, St. Louis County has long been considered an urban county for most federal programs because its southern-most tip is home to Duluth.
While other hospitals in the region simply reapplied for the rural designation without much fanfare, Ely-Bloomenson CEO Patti Banks reached out to the office of Rep. Pete Stauber, which responded with a press release on Monday touting a one-page Jan. 10 letter Stauber had sent to the administrator of the CMS, urging approval of Ely’s reapplication. Stauber’s office appeared unaware that the change impacting the Ely hospital would have a similar impact on other hospitals in his district.
Stauber’s office then issued a press statement titled: “Stauber Fights to Retain Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital’s Designation as a Critical Access Hospital,” which began a flurry of news reports that suggested the Ely hospital’s status was seriously threatened.
Yet, even as reports of the threatened status went out, area hospitals were being notifed that their reapplications had been approved and their critical access designation would continue.
Cook Hospital administrator Teresa Debevec said she reapplied for the status as soon as MDH informed her of the change. By this week, Debevec had received a letter from CMS confirming that the hospital’s longstanding designation as critical access will remain in effect. In Ely, Banks confirmed that she had received a similar letter this week.