A series of objectives, refined as an updated strategic plan were developed in the March meeting of the North Lincoln Hospital District Board of Directors as the governing body for the local hospital faces changes in health care costs and demographics. The board represents Star Valley Health with offices and facilities in Alpine, Thayne, Afton, Cokeville, Kemmerer and Bridger Valley.

“Healthcare is moving really quick, and it’s a challenging environment,” Star Valley Health CEO Dan Ordyna explained  as he reviewed the plan with SVI Media.  “That’s why we regularly do strategic planning and try to assess where we need to go as an organization.”

Before reviewing the plans, Ordyna credited the staff of the local hospital. “First and foremost, I want to just give a shout out to all of our Star Valley Health team,” he said. “We do 85,000 different patient encounters every year,” he said. “It is a lot, and our patient satisfaction scores are the envy of any healthcare organization. Although we never claim to be perfect, people really do love the care that they receive at Star Valley Health, and the survey data is indisputable.”

As part of the planning Ordyna advised the board acknowledged the challenges of providing quality health care in a rural setting.

“I think most people already know, or at least they should know, that these are not easy times for healthcare organizations in general, but especially for rural hospitals in the United States,” he noted. “For example, just in our local region, Teton Valley Hospital in Driggs, recently laid off 26 people and closed its infusion clinic. St. John’s Health, in Jackson Hole, just announced last week expense reductions of close to $5 million, and they all are looking to reduce labor expenses through attrition.”

As rural hospitals address change, Orydna indicated changes for the services. “What  we’re seeing here at Star Valley is a significant shift in who we care for.  What I mean by that is people that are employed and have commercial insurance, like Blue Cross, Aetna, Signa, and United Healthcare. This insurance is becoming unaffordable to both employees and employers.”

He continued, “This is an affordability crisis being exacerbated with the significant changes made by the big, beautiful bill last July, making the uninsured population go up.”

Ordyna also noted changes coming with the demographics of Star Valley and how the changes are affecting health care.

“Lastly, and probably the most significant factor that we’re seeing, is that the entire population in Star Valley is getting older,” he said. “Older people need more healthcare resources, and they consume more healthcare resources than any other demographic.”

He continued, “But they’re in that demographic where there’s not as much reimbursement, which is needed to run a hospital.”

Ordyna noted the changes specific to Medicare coverage. “Lincoln County alone, the overall population grew by roughly 14% over the last 10 years, but the Medicare population, age 65 and older, that grew by an astounding 80% in the last 10 years. So more and more people are getting older, more and more retirees are coming to the area,” he said. “What does that mean for rural community hospitals,?” he asked.

“This all creates a reimbursement challenge for any hospital,” he warned. “Medicare reimburses hospitals and physicians at a fraction of our actual cost to provide that care, and we collect, obviously, pennies on the dollar for anybody that’s uninsured.”

He explained the challenges associated with the diminished reimbursement.

“When reimbursement goes down, for any business, not just hospitals, it puts pressure on our cost structure, and that is what every hospital’s dealing with. And so there are some very salient initiatives that we feel like we need to do here, in this year as well as in years to come.”

Addressing the issues, Ordyna highlighted the planning process to address the health care challenges.

“Let’s give a few highlights to this, so they understand what we’re planning for in the future, as far as our strategic plans,” he said. “Well, frankly, you know, I want to emphasize that this is not something that’s going to reverse anytime soon. You know, we’re going to get older people in rural America.”

With the first steps of a strategic plan, Ordyna said the hospital will seek payment in advance when possible to avoid reimbursement challenges.

“We have to get ahead of this as best we can. So number one, we are going to double the discount upfront before procedure is done. If somebody pays them full from 15 to 30%,” he said. “This is going to help alleviate the out of pocket expenses for people that have commercial insurance.”

He added, “We’ve  heard over and over again from the community that it just costs too much. Star Valley Health is expensive. Well, it’s not just Star Valley Health, it’s every hospital. And what we can do is offer a deeper discount for people with insurance, because we want to be the provider of choice for these community members.”

A second part the hospital boards planning will address patient care without insurance coverage. Orydna said a fund process will be needed to help cover patients without insurance coverage.

“Number   two, is we’re going to add another 15% for people that don’t have insurance.” he said.
“That’s going to help take a little bit of financial pressure.”

He added, “Now, I want to remind the community that I encourage them to have insurance. We have to remember that over 60% of all bankruptcies in the United States involve some amount of medical debt. And so, as a last resort, we recognize that if people don’t have insurance, we — everybody ends up paying for it, right? And so we’re encouraging that people have some type of catastrophic policy and not just  hope that something doesn’t happen.”

Third, Ordyna said the planning process also calls for a program to help the hospital’s own employees.

“We insure 361 employees with 770 dependents. So that’s a total of 1,131 people in the valley,” he said. “We know that even our own employees struggle with the financial pressures, and so we’re partnering with the Samaritan Fund, a nonprofit organization that helps employers and employees get access to grants and donations to alleviate healthcare bills.”

He said, “Our employees who qualify, and voluntarily elect to use the fund, will receive financial assistance for high cost medical conditions.”

Finally, EMS services will also be part of the discussion for health care experiences.

“The hospital stepped in almost five years ago, but we need a plan that’s sustainable for the community. And I would like nothing more than to give that choice to the community members about what they want for EMS services.”

A voter approved EMS district is under consideration prior to the 2026 elections.

Ordyna explained, “I’m sure we could probably set up a different opportunity to talk about that more, but this is an emphasis to say, ‘start thinking about it.’ ” He added, “What will you want, what covered per EMS services?”

Addressing the overall plan, he said, “We want to tackle those things first. And so that’s our priority. Our people are the heart of everything we do.”

Ordyna also advised Star Valley Health will be reviewing expenses as it relates to staff.

“If there are labor cost reductions, it will be through attrition,” he concluded. “We’ll also need to make some financial adjustments to our benefits and discretionary pay structure. We have to strike a balance about being competitive with wages and benefits, but not being too far ahead of what the market is providing, and more importantly, what we can actually afford.”