Calais Regional Hospital is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but says it’s not planning any layoffs, will continue to pay employees and will operate as usual during the process.
A statement on the hospital’s website says a combination of local and national factors has made the filing necessary, including fewer high levels of charity care or nonpayment of bills, increasing regulation and inadequate reimbursements.
Spokeswoman DeeDee Travis says fewer people are coming to the hospital for care, in part because it’s hard to recruit health care providers to remote areas like Calais.
“It’s really hard to recruit in general now but even harder for small rural hospitals to recruit to the area. So a lot of the time patients have to go outside of the area for those basic visits, so subsequently their ancillary services,” she says.
Travis says many patients don’t realize that they can request that things like lab tests be done locally.
Calais Regional is the second rural Maine hospital to file for Chapter 11 this year. Penobscot Valley Hospital in Lincoln did so in January, and it’s also still open.
