Health care is big business in rural communities, usually ranking within the top three in employment and payroll. Health care’s economic impact starts with direct influences on employment and payroll in hospitals, nursing homes, professional offices and other health-related businesses. Because health care employment tends to have higher levels of salaries than many other economic sectors, it contributes more dollars to the local economy, purchasing more goods and services. That purchasing power generates additional local employment, payroll and tax revenues. This study determines the total direct, indirect and induced employment and income contributions by the health care sector to the local economies of each of the 79 Ohio rural counties, 28 rural counties in Ohio Appalachia, 51 rural counties outside Appalachia and rural Ohio as a whole in 2006. The project team is utilizing IMPLAN™ economic impact modeling program to obtain information, which will then be adjusted by data from other publicly available sources. The study is guided further by staff with expertise in rural health care services.
For each geographic level, the study will identify the contribution of each health care employer type, and demonstrate the proportion of the economy that is attributable to health care. This is the third time the Voinovich School has conducted this study for Ohio Department of Health (ODH), with previous phases conducted in 2003 and 2005.
Results of this study were presented at the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s Ohio meeting at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky in May, 2008. In addition, Ohio Department of Health’s Office of Rural Health will be sharing the individual and regional reports with local-, regional- and state-level health care organizations to help communicate the importance of local health care services and to assist with health care planning.