Nanticoke Hospital is receiving some federal funds after being left out of coronavirus aid to rural hospitals.
Nanticoke battled for years to retain its status as a rural Medicare Dependent Hospital (MDH) when the title was stripped back in 2010—cutting about $6 million a year in federal funding from the Seaford hospital’s annual budget.
But Nanticoke was excluded again from CARES Act funding geared towards rural hospitals in the Provider Relief Fund on the grounds of Delaware being considered an urban state.
Delaware’s congressional delegation recently sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Sec. Alex Azar to secure $1.6 million for Nanticoke to assist during the pandemic.
“[If] Sussex County is not a rural county then I don’t know what is,” said Sen. Tom Carper. “And so Nanticoke will receive another roughly one-and-a-half million—and at a time when they can really use it”
Nanticoke CEO Penny Short says the hospital was bleeding about $4 million a month during the shutdown.
“As a small community hospital it’s difficult to meet the financial demands anyway. Then you take and add COVID…” said Short.
Nanticoke did receive some funding from the CARES Act and has returned to performing elective procedures. Short says the most recent federal boost also helps but adds she can’t say Nanticoke is “out of the woods yet.”