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Clark Fork Valley Hospital (CFVH) is restructuring its home health services. CFVH has announced it will close its Medicare certified Home Health agency effective January 1, 2024. The services will still be available through the hospital’s clinics and rehabilitation department. Hospice services are unaffected by this decision and will continue unchanged.

While homebound patients will not see a difference in services, the restructuring will affect payment requirements and patients may see possible copays, said Tonya Revier with CFVH.

Like many rural organizations across the country CFVH has felt the impact of ongoing labor shortages, financial losses, and the regulatory burdens of operating home health organizations. These burdens have been particularly difficult for rural agencies given the low population density and broad areas that are served.

CFVH is the last remaining critical access hospital in western Montana to operate home health and hospice services, and the decision to close was a difficult one. “We try to offer every service possible for Sanders county residents, but the obstacles of operating a certified home health program have grown more challenging in recent years,” said hospital CEO Dr. Greg Hanson.

Dr. Hanson explained CFVH is making every effort to maintain as many services offered by home health agencies as possible. For homebound patients, Physical Therapy treatment can now occur at home through the hospital’s rehabilitation department, and CFVH has obtained approval from Medicare to provide home nurse visits through our Family Medicine Clinic. In an effort to ease the transition the hospital has contacted its current patients to explain these changes and has reached out to providers who regularly use our current home health agency to explain the changes.

“This is another unfortunate change that is increasingly common in rural areas of our country,” said Hanson. “Our governing board struggled but in the end we believe this was the best decision that would allow us to retain the majority of home based services for Sanders county residents in a sustainable manner well into the future.”