HJAR Sep/Oct 2025

DIALOGUE 10 SEP / OCT 2025 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS Editor Arkansas has implemented some of the nation’s stricter Medicaid requirements in recent years, including work reporting rules. Have those policy changes affected your patients, your finances, or your ability to deliver care? Thomas The concept of the work require- ment is one that most would agree is rea- sonable. With that said, the notion that this concept will actually achieve the goal that it is intended to fix is not a reality. Hospitals are the ones absorbing the hit when patients arrive at our doors without coverage, as patients will continue to seek healthcare through emergency departments across Arkansas. These program hurdles, cuts, etc., only create more financial strain on an already challenged healthcare system. Many patients who were temporarily placed on the Medicaid platform during the COVID-19 public health emergency lost their coverage once that emergency was lifted. Jefferson Regional still provided care pulmonology/critical care, urology, gas- troenterology, rheumatology, endocrinol- ogy, nephrology, ENT, and certainly general surgery, orthopedics and obstetrics — just to name a few. Providing these valuable ser- vices is the only means by which we can meet our mission for southeast Arkansas. Editor What do you see as the greatest healthcare challenges facing southeast Arkansas — and how are you working to meet them? Thomas Southeast Arkansas has certainly faced its share of challenges, including pop- ulation declines, employment opportunities, schools, etc. From a healthcare standpoint, many residents living in our region are often reluctant to address health concerns until it’s too late. Access to certain health services (i.e., obstetrics/maternal health) is slipping away each year due to staffing challenges as well as inadequate funding available for such costly programs. Beyond socioeconomic challenges, the greatest threat to the region, as well as to the entire state of Arkansas, is the lagging reimbursement from our payors. For far too long, Arkansas has remained at the bottom, in terms of reimbursement for healthcare payments from all payors, and we must see progress on this front and see it soon. Since the pandemic, costs of providing healthcare have soared while reimbursement rates have made little to no progress. When hospitals are forced to lean on their cash reserves and other means to break even on their income statement, it should cause concern for all Arkansans. Think about it: Our state’s most sacred institu- tions — that we all expect to be there when we need themmost — are struggling to make the financial equation work. I continue to push for the state and its officials to better understand this complex healthcare indus- try and to support our hospitals for stronger reimbursement. Brian Thomas with radiation oncologist Shahid Hameed, MD