Report: 20% of US rural hospitals risk closing, losing services

Editor's Note

According to a Bipartisan Policy Center report, titled “The Impact of COVID-19 on the Rural Health Care Landscape” and published on May 4, 441 out of 2,176 rural hospitals in the US—just over 20%—“face three or more risk factors, putting them at risk of service reduction or closure,” Becker’s Hospital CFO Report May 4 reports.

The risk factors these rural hospitals are facing include negative total operating margin, negative operating margin on patient services alone, negative current net assets, and negative total net assets.

For the report, Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank based in Washington DC, conducted interviews throughout 2021 with rural hospital leaders from eight states—Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming—to gain more insight into the rural healthcare landscape.

Here are more observations from the report, according to Becker’s:

• 116 rural hospital closed between 2010 and 2019
• COVID-19 federal relief helped stabilize facilities and slow the number of closures
• rural hospitals still struggle financially and have had difficulty recruiting nurses and other healthcare employees
• rural hospital closures can significantly reduce access to healthcare services and also affect the availability of healthcare workers.

Download the full report here.