Federal Funding Shifts, Hospital Closures & Academic Health System Challenges – with Laura Dyrda

In this episode, Laura Dyrda, Editor-in-Chief at Becker’s Healthcare joins Scott Becker to break down critical healthcare updates, including NIH grant freezes, the impact on academic medical centers, and a troubling rise in hospital closures.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
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See you there.
This is Scott Becker with the Beckers HealthCare
podcast.
I I am thrilled today to visit with

(00:43):
Laura Dierda. Laura really serves in the role
I used to serve in for all practical
purposes as the chief content officer at Becker's
Healthcare, both in the agenda side and the
and the editorial side. It it just does
an amazing job. I can't tell you how
thrilled I am with the work she does.
She shares a little bit of this regularly
a couple key stories she's watching, what she's
focused on, and a lot more.
Laurel, let me tee you up. Tell us

(01:04):
a few things you're watching currently. What's top
of mind and top of news?
Well, absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Scott.
And, you know, really, truly, we're following a
lot of news right now and especially,
everything that's happening up on Capitol Hill. And
and just keeping an eye on what that
means for hospitals and health systems, how they
need to be thinking about the future, and
and then, of course, responding to any new

(01:25):
changes, regulatory, and policy updates,
that are having a very real impact on
the organization.
So I think, you know, the most recent
thing that has come through on the news
cycle is HHS instructing the National Institutes of
Health to halt research grants and contract payments
to five universities,
which was, came to light according to internal
email that was obtained by the publication Science.

(01:47):
In response to the ongoing disruptions
to research funding, Cambridge, Massachusetts based Harvard, University
filed a lawsuit against Trump's administration on April
21. And so, of course, we're following that,
and we'll we'll keep updated on our digital
content. But I wanted to talk a little
bit more about some of the ramifications of
the NIH funding,
held against a few other research institutions as

(02:09):
well. Those being, in addition to Harvard, Northwestern
University
in Illinois,
Brown University in Providence, and Cornell University in
New York City, which also includes their medical
school.
The White House has already frozen all NIH
funding to Columbia University in New York City
as well. And according to the email, the
freeze affects ongoing NIH grant and also states

(02:32):
that NIH staff has been directed not to
provide any communications to those institutions
around whether the research funds are frozen or
why.
And the move does not explicitly force the
researchers to pause their work, but the university
say they have received staff work orders on
many projects. Northwestern said it's received a staff
work order on more than a hundred projects,

(02:53):
including those focused on wearable devices and Parkinson's
disease. And Cornell said that it's received those
similar orders on 90 projects, including
some focus on cancer research as well as
others,
on the spread of airborne infectious diseases.
The latest NIH funding freeze follows an earlier
White House announcement freezing more than $2,200,000,000

(03:14):
in a multiyear federal grant to Harvard
after the university
decided not to follow,
changes that the White House had instructed around
DEI programs, etcetera. So, you know, that pause
has already disrupted some of the projects that
they were doing around health care research, including
international tuberculosis study and early detection work on
ALS.

(03:35):
So, you know, I think a lot of
our academic health systems and others are keeping
a close eye on this because the the
funding is so essential
to the mission of being able to provide
innovative research as well as education
and how much we're hearing from their executives.
Are they trying to continue on with that
mission if they don't have the funding? What
do they have in their budgets? How can

(03:56):
they, you know, really continue to support some
of these programs and and continue to care
for patients as well? So I think that's
something really a lot of,
executives are are keeping a close eye on
and trying to figure out how they're going
to navigate this,
uncertain future
at the same time that they're also in
the midst of trying to extend services and
support in some ways financially community hospitals around

(04:17):
them. So those hospitals don't have to close,
in in really also,
acquiring sometimes those hospitals as well and bringing
them within their network. So so a lot
going on for this academic health systems and
and trying to,
do the best they can to care for
their patients and meet their broader mission, but
also, you know, seeing that there may be

(04:38):
disruption to their funding sources in a very
significant way.
I mean, literally, yeah,
fascinating, to to hear what's going on in
the freeze and the concern of academic medical
centers.
What a fascinating
situation, and we'll see how this plays out
over the next year.
What else are you watching closely?

(04:59):
Absolutely. Well, you know, I think a few
of the other things that we're watching closely,
I wanted to share a few thoughts and,
updates on,
you know, we heard from CFOs last week.
We had a call that, you know, really
truly went through a a few, items that
were interesting in talking about hospital closures, market
dynamics, and and really how that's affecting different

(05:21):
hospitals and health systems overall.
I think we've seen in the last,
week in particular, there have been four different
hospital closures across The US. And since the
beginning of 2025,
we reported 15 hospitals and emergency department closures
highlighting alarming trends,
within the health care facilities, feeling like their
financial and operational pressures are are really a

(05:43):
challenge for underserved and rural communities.
We saw Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital and four
hospital based outpatient departments closed on April 22.
And
then closed their hospital in Pennsylvania. We've also
been following for a while their,
you know, their financial challenges, and they shared
plans to close on April 21,

(06:05):
one of their hospitals. And it comes after
months of negotiations with multiple stakeholders and court
hear hearings on trying to figure out how
they can keep that facility open.
It's also shutting down a second facility in
Pennsylvania,
Taylor Hospital, which has around 2,600
employees,
across two other facilities as well. And then

(06:25):
finally, Trinity Hospital in Texas said it would
close April 25 after the hospital attempted to
secure long term sustainability and financial
funding, for the past several months.
So, you know, I I think that's a
story we're seeing play out, as I said,
in the last week. Those four facilities,
deciding to close and, you know, we expect

(06:46):
to see similar, challenges or instabilities,
especially as the financial
environment becomes, really truly,
for some rural hospitals and and community facilities,
you know, too much to bear. And if
they're not able to find partners as well
to come in and provide that type of
support that they need or acquire their facility,

(07:06):
you know,
there won't be much option.
Thank you very, very much. And and so
I see this more and more,
situation where we've got,
hospitals closing. I I saw another one reported
yesterday, and Crozer, of course, discussed I think
today
yesterday, it was also discussed that they're not

(07:26):
gonna be able to stay open. Just more
and more of that and a sign of
the times and and and quite frightening, quite
quite I mean, literally,
in terms of the inability of these hospitals
and sometimes in rural areas to stay open
to recruit staff to make it go, to
make the numbers work. Just a really challenging
situation.
It looks like we'll end up with more
and more health care deserts if some of
that doesn't switch around.

(07:48):
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And especially looking to,
CMS,
reimbursement and funding delays for Medicare and Medicaid
patients. I think that was that hospital in
Texas cited that particular as being a a
really,
contributing to their decision as well as, commercial
health insurance lower than expected revenue from collections
owed by patient co pays and then an

(08:09):
increase in the,
payables for supplies and services.
So, you know, I I know we've looked
at reports that see, are expecting continued increases
for supplies expenses,
as well as slower growth within,
staffing expenses and labor costs, but still growth
there too. And so I think, you know,

(08:29):
there's a a real hunger to try to
figure out how to do things differently and,
be innovative when you can. But I I
think especially for some of these smaller hospitals
and rural facilities,
they've just been operating on such a small
margin already that it's truly, truly,
become, you know,
a challenge for all health care organizations in
the surrounding areas as well.

(08:50):
Yeah. %.
Laura, thank you so much. A lot going
on with federal funding that causes lots of
impacts on all this stuff. Concerns about Medicaid,
obviously, concerns with the NA NIH,
and so many different challenges that health systems
are facing already, and and these are gonna
add to it for the time being. Laura
Derrida, thank you for joining us again on

(09:11):
the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Always fantastic to visit
with you. Thank you so much, Scott. It's
a pleasure.