Health Affairs Scholar
Numerous Overlapping Programs Add Complexity, Unpredictability to Rural Hospital Finances
Abstract Introduction Rural hospitals face unique financial challenges, prompting Congressional action including multiple Medicare-specific payment programs. Medicare’s programs to enhance rural hospital payment include: Critical Access, Sole Community, Medicare-Dependent, and Low-Volume Hospitals. Methods We examined the payments made through these programs and their resulting impact on hospitals’ finances for 2,942 rural hospitals from 1997 to 2024 using cost report data. Results Almost four-fifths (82.4%) of rur …