According to a report from the San Antonio Express, rural Texas hospitals are facing cuts to programs and services that jeopardize already strained resources. Hospital administrators are trying to come up with solutions before Thursday, when “cost-saving” measures to Medicaid passed during the 82nd Legislature go into effect. The first cuts came in 2010 in the form of a 2 percent reduction to reimbursement rates to doctors, hospitals and nursing homes. The next wave will take an additional 8 percent, but will affect rural hospitals only in their outpatient services because the Medicaid program in Texas pays rural hospitals the cost of providing their services rather than the standard statewide Medicaid rate. No doubt someone will try to blame this on trial lawyers too.