Newberry Health is set to receive nearly $11 million in federal funding as part of a $200 million infusion aimed at shoring up rural health care across South Carolina, with state officials traveling to the local hospital to make the announcement.
Gov. Henry McMaster and other state leaders visited Newberry Health this week to detail how the money, distributed through the new Rural Health Transformation Program, will reach hospitals and clinics statewide. The program was created to help rural providers absorb the impact of upcoming Medicaid funding cuts, which the South Carolina Hospital Association estimates could cost the state’s hospitals roughly $1.8 billion a year once fully phased in. The state’s Medicaid agency received 712 applications for the funding and approved 227.
At the 90-bed Newberry Health, the award will go toward replacing a two-decades-old MRI machine and upgrading a CT scanner that currently lacks heart-health imaging capabilities, a gap that forces patients to travel roughly an hour to Columbia or Greenville for cardiac scans. The hospital also plans to use the money to expand its operating rooms, strengthen computer systems against cyberthreats, and add physical security measures.
Newberry Health CEO John Snow said the funding is about more than dollars and cents. He said it is about people, access and opportunity, and about making sure high-quality health care remains close to home for years to come. Snow also pointed to physical security as a growing priority, citing incidents of violence directed at health care staff by unruly patients and distressed family members.
A separate local recipient, Lovelace Family Medicine, will receive $1 million to repave its parking lot, recruit and retain staff, and update its information technology systems. Dr. Oscar Lovelace, who has practiced in Newberry for 38 years, said the region has already lost obstetric services in several nearby counties as hospitals in Fairfield, Saluda, Laurens and Union counties scaled back maternity care or closed altogether, leaving fewer nearby options for expectant mothers.
Statewide, six rural hospitals have closed in South Carolina since 2010, according to a 2023 legislative study, and hospitals in the state generally operate on thin margins between 0% and 4%. Rural facilities are especially vulnerable because they serve smaller populations and a higher share of Medicare and Medicaid patients. State Department of Health and Human Services Director Eunice Medina said officials are holding back some of the broader funding pool to study where the state’s greatest rural health needs lie before distributing the remainder over the program’s four-year run.
For Newberry residents, the upgrades mean locally available equipment that could eventually reduce the need to drive to Columbia or Greenville for certain cardiac testing, along with a hospital better positioned to protect patient records and staff safety going forward.
