Hospital Contributes To Economy

In 2014, Jasper Memorial Hospital in Monticello, generated more than $12,647,185 in revenue for the local and state economy, according to a recent report by the Georgia Hospital Association, the state’s largest hospital trade association.

The report also found that during the same time period, Jasper Memorial Hospital provided approximately $850,121 in uncompensated care while sustaining more than 342 full-time jobs throughout Monticello and the rest of the state.

The report revealed that Jasper Memorial Hospital had direct expenditures of more than $5,535,842 in 2014. When combined with an economic multiplier developed by the United States Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, the total economic impact of those expenditures was more than $12,647,185.

This output multiplier considers the “ripple” effect of direct hospital expenditures on other sectors of the economy, such as medical supplies, durable medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. Economic multipliers are used to model the resulting impact of a change in one industry on the “circular flow” of spending within an economy as a whole.

“While Jasper Memorial Hospital is well known for its role in meeting the health care needs of the residents of Monticello, it also plays an integral role in protecting our area’s economic health,” said Jan Gaston, Administrator of Jasper Memorial Hospital.

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“We are so appreciative of the Monticello community’s unwavering support of their local hospital and will continue to work hard to ensure that the residents of this area have access to the best and safest health care services available.”

While Jasper Memorial Hospital remains a major component of the area’s economic engine, the hospital’s leadership, like the rest of the Georgia hospital community, is concerned about a wide array of economic challenges that have made it increasingly difficult to meet the community’s health care needs, including a fast-growing uninsured population and inadequate payments from government insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid. Presently, 41 percent of all hospitals in Georgia are operating with negative margins.

“We’re extremely concerned about the current operating environment for hospitals,” said Mrs. Gaston. “We’ve made a commitment to every citizen of this community to be there for them 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. However, our ability to do so is being compromised when so many of our patients are either uninsured or severely underinsured.”

According to Mrs. Gaston, state lawmakers must work to protect the state’s health care system with the same fervor that they do other initiatives like education and public utilities.

“Our local health care system is indispensable,” said Mrs. Gaston. “It is not only the primary guardian of health in our community, but it is also a major economic engine in this area that is responsible for 342 jobs. It is our hope that our elected lawmakers will join us in our efforts to protect our local health care system and preserve access to health care for every resident of Monticello.”