TIOGA COUNTY, PA (WENY) -- Patients who receive dialysis treatment at U.S. Renal Care in Wellsboro are now scrambling to find care after the business notified patients it's closing in about 60 days. One Mansfield woman said she found out in late December from her bus driver on her way to treatment.

"I got on the bus to go to dialysis and my bus driver says, 'Well, where are you going?' I was kind of dumbfounded and I'm like, 'To dialysis?' She's like, 'No, where are you going?' I said, 'Come on, you've been my driver for how many years? What do you mean where I'm going? You're taking me to dialysis.' She says, 'No, they're closing. Where are you going? Which center?' I said, 'What do you mean they're closing?' She says, 'We got a call from the renal place saying that U.S. Renal was closing down,'" said dialysis patient, Anita Hoyt.

The next closest dialysis center is about 45 minutes to an hour or more away, depending on where you live. The closest U.S. Renal Care location is in St. Marys Pennsylvania, which is almost two hours away.

In a statement to WENY News, a representative for U.S. Renal Care said:

"U.S. Renal Care had to make the very difficult decision to close our Wellsboro center. Providing care in communities like Wellsboro is a challenge many healthcare providers face as Medicare reimbursement has not kept up with the rising costs of operating a dialysis center. As a result, Wellsboro, like other centers across the country, have struggled to cover costs and unfortunately, this sometimes results in a center closing. U.S. Renal Care is taking every measure to ensure our patients have access to the lifesaving care they need. We are working closely with each of our patients and their physicians to help them identify another dialysis center without experiencing any interruptions to their treatment schedule."

Hoyt is worried about where she will now be able to receive treatment and how she'll get there.

"Okay, you want us to travel? What happens in bad weather? We live in a rural area. What happens if we can't get to our dialysis center because we're snowed in, or this or that?... How much time do they think we need to waste being on buses or in cars when we don't have that much time to live as it is? People think [it's] an exaggeration but [it's] not. A couple of days of no dialysis [and] some of us could [end up] in the hospital. Some of us...it could be no coming back from it," she said.

Roger Preble is another patient at the U.S. Renal Care Center in Wellsboro. Preble said he lives just over three miles from the Wellsboro U.S. Renal Care Center, and the closest facility to him would be Corning if they have spots available. He said it would put a lot of stress on him and his wife.

"We're a one-car household because her [my wife's] office is upstairs. [Sometimes I'll drive to dialysis] and I feel great, but I don't so much when I get done. What am I going to do? She can't come get me. You know, I'm kind of stranded. Anybody that knows what dialysis does, it wrecks your body when you're done. I come home from that 3.3 mile [trip] and I pretty much sleep all day. So, now with a wrecked body, I have to try to drive and stay awake. If I'm lucky, 45 minutes, it could be an hour, it could be an hour and a half. I don't know. It's up in the air," said Preble.

The U.S. Renal Care Center in Wellsboro will close in about two months from the notice that was sent to patients on January 24th. Preble and Hoyt hope an organization or corporation can take over the facility from U.S. Renal Care to save themselves and dozens of other patients from traveling far for treatment.

"Dialysis patients don't live forever. When you're on dialysis, your lifespan is cut short [and] they say you don't live more than seven to 10 years on it. I'm already on seven. [With U.S. Renal Care closing the Wellsboro location] it's like a nail in the coffin because if I can't get to dialysis, I know what the outcome is," said Hoyt.