Rural U.S. hospitals are on life support
WHEN THE PANDEMIC STRUCK, JUST ABOUT ALL hospitals took a financial hit. Cash-cow elective surgeries were suspended for weeks to curb viral spread. Hospitals that weren’t treating many COVID-19 patients simply ate that loss, while expenses skyrocketed at those that were.
As a result, hospitals in cities from St. Paul, Minn., to Chicago to Houston have recently closed or are set to do so soon. In rural areas of the country, it’s been even worse: 15 facilities have shuttered so far this year, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina (UNC), on pace to pass last year’s record high of 18. The hospitals in the worst financial shape generally share
