Columbus Regional Health says it has no plans to scale back its maternity services but acknowledged that the county hospital system “is not immune” from the financial challenges facing healthcare providers across the state and nation.
CRH delivers around 1,200 babies each year through its Birthing Center and its outpatient practices provide prenatal, maternity, delivery and post-partum care to mothers in Bartholomew County and much of the surrounding area, officials said.
“CRH remains committed to ensuring that our comprehensive labor, delivery and postpartum care services remain intact,” said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue. “We do not have any plans currently to alter or discontinue these essential services we provide to not only the core Bartholomew County community, but the broader region.”
The statement from CRH comes as Johnson Memorial Hospital in Franklin is poised to become the 16th facility in Indiana to close its maternity ward since 2020, according to The Daily Journal.
JMH announced Friday that it is phasing out its obstetrics services and will close its Maternity Care Center within the next several months due to budgetary constraints.
JMH President and CEO Dr. David Dunkle told The Daily Journal that the hospital had implemented several cost-cutting initiatives over the past few years but could not offset low reimbursement rates for maternity care from Medicaid and private insurers.
“We’ve known we are in a long-term unsustainable model for quite some time,” Dunkle said. “There was hope we’d get either federal relief or relief at the state level. But that has not happened.”
The Johnson County closure comes as Indiana hospitals say they’re increasingly struggling to stay open as expenses rise faster than revenue, The Indiana Capital Chronicle reported.
A recent analysis performed on behalf of the Indiana Hospital Association showed that operating margins at hospitals in the state declined from 2.1% in 2024 to 1.9% in 2025, through August. In the meantime, the national median rose from 1.5% to 2.6%.
Operating income at Hoosier hospitals declined 5.5% through August 2025 compared to 2024, while operating expenses rose 4.7%. In contrast, income rose 12% nationwide — more than the 6.7% growth in expenses.
“A significant number of Indiana hospitals, particularly rural and safety net hospitals, are operating with little or no financial cushion,” Indiana Hospital Association President Scott Tittle told reporters last month. “Hospital finances are not abstract. They directly affect patient access.”
“Now, there’s a persistent narrative at the Statehouse and nationally that hospitals are doing just fine,” Tittle continued. “What this report demonstrates is the exact opposite.”
Medicaid and Medicare both reimburse hospitals at a fraction of the cost they spend on care, but hospitals often lose out entirely when caring for patients without any form of insurance.
Conditions are expected to worsen under President Donald Trump’s recently approved One Big Beautiful Bill Act and other factors, with Indiana projected to see an estimated $12.7 billion in Medicaid cuts moving forward, according to The Daily Journal.
Dunkle said Medicaid reimburses Indiana hospitals for just 57% of the care of costs — the 8th lowest rate in the nation — while Medicare reimburses 82% of costs in the state. About 70% of patients at JMH are insured by Medicaid or Medicare, and about 40% of the deliveries made at the JMH maternity unit come from patients on Medicaid, he said.
Medicare and Medicaid are also significant sources of revenue for CRH, according to state records.
Medicare accounted for 52.6% of CRH’s gross patient revenues in 2024, while Medicaid accounted for an additional 15.4%, according to an independent audit of the county hospital system published this past June.
“Hospitals and health systems suspending or closing services is another unfortunate sign of the headwinds facing healthcare,” DeClue said. “CRH is not immune to the financial hurdles and challenges hospitals and healthcare providers across the state and nation are experiencing. No healthcare provider wants to suspend or discontinue mission services; however, when reimbursement rates do not adequately cover the costs of delivering care, Indiana’s hospitals and health systems are faced with these types of difficult decisions.”
CRH officials said Medicaid “doesn’t come even close” to covering the cost of care, and hospitals and health systems are left to absorb underpayments. Additionally, private insurance companies delay and deny payments and underpay claims, “all while reporting some of the largest profit margins in the industry,” officials said.
“Columbus Regional Health is proactively confronting these challenges through actions and solutions within our control, but recognize that many solutions from all sectors within healthcare are needed to address lasting change and improvement to our nation’s healthcare crisis,” DeClue said.
