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Written by Helen Adamopoulos (Twitter | Google+)  | May 12, 2014, Becker’s Hospital Review

 

Shrinking government funding, the increasing cost of providing care and other industry shifts have put a growing amount of pressure on rural hospitals’ finances, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Here are five key things to know about rural hospitals and the fiscal challenges they face, according to the report.

1. Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement changes have a significant effect on rural hospitals, which receive about 60 percent of their revenue from the government on average.

2. In 2010, 51 percent of the patients rural hospitals serve are older than 65, and 52 percent are Medicare beneficiaries — compared with 37 percent and 41 percent, respectively, at urban hospitals.

3. At rural hospitals, in 2010, 64 percent of patients had no surgical or nonsurgical procedures performed during their stays, compared with 38 percent of urban hospital patients.

4. Although the number of rural hospitals has remained at about 2,000 since the late 1990s, at least 14 closed in 2013, and more are expected to shut their doors under increasing financial pressure.

5. Some states are working to keep rural hospitals open. Georgia’s Republican Gov. Nathan Deal created the Rural Hospital Stabilization Committee to possibly help reopen four rural hospitals in the state that closed during the past two years. In South Carolina, Republican Gov. Nikki Haley is working on a bill to accelerate the reopening of hospitals that have closed and has increased what the state reimburses rural hospitals for treating uninsured patients, according to the report.

 

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