Originally published on January 28, 2021 1:49 pm
There are several factors behind the financial struggles rural hospitals face right now, according to Harold Miller, CEO of the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. They include increased costs to fight the pandemic, decreased money coming in from patients who are putting off doctor visits, and small hospitals that earn less per patient from private insurers than their urban counterparts,
“Most rural hospitals, even if they’re making profits, are making very small profits and typically do not have significant reserves in place,” Miller says. “And the hospitals that we’ve identified as being at risk, are ones that have been losing money for several years.”
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