Rural Hospital Provider Assistance Program - Monroe County Hospital (referred to as MCH) is a CMS recognized critical access hospital with twenty-five licensed inpatient beds, located at 2016 S. Alabama Avenue, Monroeville, AL 36460-3044. MCH is a not-for-profit hospital serving the rural communities around Monroeville, Alabama, and its surrounding areas for over 40 years. As in most of the emergency rooms in the country, MCH’s uninsured patients account for over 20% of our total ER visits. The ER physician services provided to uninsured, or under-insured patients are generally unpaid, or uncompensated, resulting in a deficit of operating fund for the ER physician group. In MCH, the amount of uncompensated ER pro fee is estimated to be $1,734,000 annually. For an ER physician group to continue to provide ER service in a hospital, the ER physician group needs to have a balanced budget, and this typically requires payment subsidies from the hospital. The amount of ER physician group subsidy to be paid by MCH is projected to be $1,734,000 for the 12 months from 9/30/26 to 9/30/27. MCH adopts a model to contract with a national ER physician group that has a proven record of providing reliable, high quality ER physician services to rural hospitals. MCH intends to meet this financial challenge of providing ER physician coverage by seeking assistance and utilizing HRSA Grant HRSA-26-105 with Award Floor of $148,000, or a higher amount if available, to help to fund this subsidy for the physician group. MCH’s own out-of-pocket for this project will be $1,856,000 annually, or less if HRSA-26-105 ends up with a higher than floor amount per applicant. The physician group is NewGen Emergency Medicine LLC. NewGen Emergency Medicine LLC has been providing high quality ER physician service at MCH since 2026. NewGen Emergency Medicine LLC will continue to partner with MCH to deliver measurable value to our community by providing consistent staffing, stronger clinical oversight, and performance-focused management that improves quality metrics, operational efficiency, and patient care outcome. By securing the funding from HRSA-26-105 Rural Hospital Provider Assistance Program, MCH aims to continue to form a strong and stable partnership with NewGen Emergency Medicine LLC to deliver consistent, patient-centered emergency room service to our communities.
