OKFAHC’s Julie McKone: When healthcare policy becomes personal

Julie McKone | August 11, 2026 https://journalrecord.com/2026/08/11/mckone-integris-health-clinic-closures-impact-oklahoma-healthcare/

Over the past several months, thousands of Oklahomans have received letters from their physicians informing them that their clinics are closing. Those letters have been arriving since INTEGRIS Health announced workforce reductions, clinic closures, and cuts to medical services after projecting approximately $130 million in losses tied to Medicaid and Medicare funding cuts from the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

These INTEGRIS closures are a painful illustration of how Oklahoma patients, already struggling to find affordable, accessible care, bear the consequences of government policy decisions. Whether Washington cuts funding or the state Capitol enacts mandates that increase healthcare costs, we feel the burden of those decisions.

For policymakers, these closures should not have come as a surprise. Earlier this year, the Oklahoma Policy Institute warned that Medicare and Medicaid funding cuts could lead to hospital closures, while a recent study by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform found that more than 700 rural hospitals in the U.S. were at risk of closing, with Oklahoma ranking fifth.

Rural communities face the greatest challenges in areas where providers are already under significant financial strain. In a recent interview with KTEN News, Mercy Southern Oklahoma Communities President Daryle Voss cautioned that “there’s not many, if any hospitals — rural hospitals, in the state that can survive those kinds of cuts over the next 10 years.”

For these smaller communities, the loss of providers or services can be severe. It is likely that routine appointments that once required a short drive will now involve traveling to another community, which may be a major barrier to care for some working families who could end up curbing or skipping care altogether.

While rural communities are hit hardest, the impacts are not limited to them. When specialty services disappear, such as INTEGRIS’ Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic in Oklahoma City, patients, including children with complex medical conditions, are forced to find new providers and compete for appointments in an already overstretched healthcare system. Even when alternative care is available, wait times can stretch from weeks into months. For families managing chronic conditions, those disruptions can be devastating.

At OKFAHC, we work with Oklahoma families, veterans, businesses and other healthcare consumers to argue that policymakers should carefully evaluate the real-world implications of healthcare legislation before it is enacted. Whether the issue is insurance mandates, prescription drug policy, provider reimbursement, or federal healthcare funding, decision-makers should understand not only the intended benefits of a policy, but also its cost to Oklahomans.

Finally, Oklahomans need to speak up about these issues. When individual voices come together, they form a collective voice that policymakers can no longer ignore.