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By Katie Parsley
Statesville Record & Landmark

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx has pledged her support to Iredell County hospitals, saying she will lobby Congress for fair funding.

“I have a strong commitment to you,” she told hospital executives Monday. “I will do everything I possibly can to work with the Senate and make sure this happens.”

Foxx spent about an hour speaking with executives at Iredell Memorial Hospital on Monday afternoon. She received an update on the facility’s construction projects and programs before officials focused their attention on funding.
Arnold Nunnery, who recently retired as the hospital’s CEO, told Foxx that the hospital is suffering because of a problem with its Medicare funding.
“It’s a large concern - a crisis,” he told Foxx. “I doubt in your young career you’ve seen anything this unfair.”

The problem, Nunnery said, is in Medicare’s classification system. Hospitals are classified as rural or urban, and their funding hinges on that designation.
Medicare classifies Iredell Memorial and the county’s other facilities as rural hospitals, Nunnery explained. Rural hospitals receive less funding than their urban counterparts.

However, the county is surrounded by nearly 15 competing hospitals that are classified as urban. Of Iredell’s nine bordering counties, just one -Wilkes - is also classified as rural.

Iredell Memorial officials estimate that the hospital loses as much as $3.4 million a year because of its rural classification. Even Alexander County’s hospital receives nearly $430 per patient more than Iredell.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Foxx said.

To qualify for a reclassification currently, counties must have a certain wage index and a certain percentage of residents who commute to work from the area. Iredell County barely misses the cut.

Local officials want to change federal legislation to allow the county to be classified as urban.

That’s where Foxx’s help comes in handy, Nunnery said. The hospital has already secured help from Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr, and plan to speak to Rep. Patrick McHenry.

Foxx told Iredell’s Board of Directors that she would “absolutely” fight for a change in legislation.

“This is so graphically unfair,” Foxx said. “It breaks my heart to see a place like this ... not be rewarded. That is the wrong way to do things.”