Augusta Medical Group, a nonprofit community hospital headquartered in Fishersville, Virginia, announced that it’s “consolidating” three rural health care clinics in Virginia. Patients who have visited Weyers Cave Urgent Care, Buena Vista Primary Care, and Churchville Primary Care “will be transitioned to nearby practices” for care.
The press release noted that “The consolidation is also part of Augusta Health’s ongoing response to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the resulting realities for healthcare delivery.”
Trumpcare sucks. https://t.co/nXI4qYz50X
— Congressman Greg Casar (@RepCasar) September 11, 2025
When U.S. Congressman Greg Casar (D-TX) read the news, he replied with snark: “Trumpcare [expletive].”
Trumpcare sucks. https://t.co/nXI4qYz50X
— Congressman Greg Casar (@RepCasar) September 11, 2025
Casar has repeatedly spoken out against Trump’s budget reconciliation bill, which many Democrats claim is causing rural hospitals to close across the country.
Note: Rural hospitals rely heavily on Medicaid funding, partially because they typically serve a higher share of low-income patients.
On Saturday, at a “No Cuts to Healthcare” rally in Washington, D.C., Casar said, “Going after Medicaid is not enough for Donald Trump. Now, he’s very quietly trying to cut our Medicare, too.”
Casar added: “This is one of the biggest Trump scandals that Americans have not heard of. And he’s got a boring name for it, it’s called ‘prior authorization.’”
The Congressman explained: “Right now, if you’re a senior and you are on Medicare, you go to your doctor and your doctor figures out what kind of treatment you need. Trump wants to change that.
“He wants private companies to use A.I. to decide what kind of treatment our seniors do and do not get. And then he wants to pay those companies more when they deny care to our seniors.”
While several MAGA supporters responded on social media by calling Casar’s claims “lies,” Trump’s director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Dr. Mehmet Oz, is launching a pilot program next year called the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model, in six states (New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, and Washington).
WISeR will partner with companies that will use A.I. tools to decide whether those Medicare beneficiaries will receive the care physicians say they need. Critics of the program say the it will likely lead to longer delays and denials of care, as already seen within the privatized Medicare Advantage system.
According to CMS, the companies will have “expertise providing recommendations on medical necessity of coverage for payers using enhanced technology like AI,” and they “will receive a percentage of the savings associated with averted wasteful, inappropriate care as a result of their reviews. That percentage will be adjusted based on the participant’s performance on measures related to the process, including provider experience.” The names of the participating companies have not been revealed.