New requirements laid out by the Department of Health and Human Services to limit processed foods in hospitals are getting mixed responses from hospitals in rural Oregon.
The stated goal of the new guidelines is to fight long-term illness by treating healthy food as part of medical care, including eliminating sugary drinks, replacing refined grains with whole grains and emphasizing higher vegetable intake.
Virginia Williams, CEO of Curry Health Network in Gold Beach, said being a small hospital is to their advantage when it comes to serving healthy food.
“Most of our food is home-cooked in our kitchen. We really use very little processed foods,” Williams pointed out. “I would say we meet a lot of what their requirements are. We really do have very, very good food and it is known in our community.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said hospitals must align patient meals with the new guidelines in order to be eligible for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Some hospitals have expressed concerns the requirements could further stretch their already tight budgets.
Brock Slabach, senior chief operations officer for the National Rural Health Association, said he is not worried about the new guidelines. He explained hospitals have long-standing regulations for their food and he does not expect the changes will need to be very dramatic at most rural hospitals.
He added while there could be an increase in price, it is not at the top of his list of concerns.
“We just kind of took it in stride,” Slabach noted. “We have so many different issues in this country for health care that to focus on this one, I thought was kind of fascinating.”
He added the new guidelines still need to be incorporated into each state’s operations manual. Then hospitals will be surveyed to make sure they’re in compliance, which gives hospitals time to make the changes.
