Rob Sand Meets with Health Care Providers in Ottumwa About Growing Rural Health Care Shortages

DES MOINES, IA – Yesterday, candidate for governor Rob Sand visited Ottumwa for a roundtable discussion with local health care providers to discuss the recent closures of the MercyOne Ottumwa Family and Internal Medicine Clinic and the River Hills Medical Center clinic in Centerville — and what those closures mean for health care access in Southeast Iowa.

During the discussion, providers talked about how stretched thin the health care system has become in rural Iowa, describing packed clinics, growing staff shortages, and doctors trying to see too many patients in too little time. They also talked about how every clinic closure puts more pressure on nearby hospitals and emergency rooms as it forces patients to drive farther and wait longer just to get basic care. As governor, Rob will fight to protect rural health care access and make health care more affordable so Iowans can get the care they need close to home – without long drives, long waits, or higher costs.

Learn more about Rob’s health care roundtable below:

WATCH:

KTVO: Rob Sand speaks with health care professionals in Ottumwa

READ:

Ottumwa Courier: Providers warn ER overflow grows as primary care clinics shut down

Cassie Dunlavy spoke at a rural healthcare roundtable hosted by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, the same week River Hills announced it will close its Centerville clinic July 31.
The Centerville closure follows the February closure of MercyOne’s Ottumwa family and internal medicine clinic and River Hills’ announcement in May that its Richland dental clinic in Keokuk County will close July 31. Earlier this year, the Pella Regional Medical Clinic in Ottumwa also made cuts to services, citing difficulties in provider recruitment.
Providers at Thursday’s roundtable described emergency rooms absorbing overflow from closed primary care clinics, nurses leaving for better-paying states and mental health patients occupying ER beds for weeks because no other placement exists.
“I think we’re seeing the end result of decades of problems with a disorganized payment system that actually has underpaid Iowa all that time,” said [Dr. Peter Reiter, a former physician at MercyOne Clinic in Ottumwa who practiced there for 40 years]. “And we’ve gotten by for a long time because people were willing to live in Iowa, wanted to live in Iowa, did live in Iowa, wanted to take care of each other, and [now] have gone to the limits of what’s financially possible.”
Sand blamed Iowa’s privatized Medicaid system and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — signed by President Donald Trump last July — which cut $911 billion from federal Medicaid spending over 10 years.
“We heard over and over again how the privatization of Medicaid has been a disaster,” Sand said after the event. “We heard more than once how the Big Beautiful Bill is resulting in massive cuts as well as facility closures across the state of Iowa.”