rural hospitals

Governor Cooper signs Medicaid expansion

Health & Safety

What expanded Medicaid does and does not mean for North Carolinians

5:01pm March 31, 2023

This week, North Carolina became the fortieth state to expand Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act. House Bill 76 is projected to increase coverage to hundreds of thousands of people and pave the way for billions of dollars in federal government support.

Queue Listen Now

Rural communities with struggling hospitals often turn to outside investors willing to take over their health care centers. Some are willing to sell the hospitals for next to nothing to companies that promise to keep them running.

Health & Safety

Buy a rural hospital for $100? Investors pick up struggling institutions for pennies

12:03pm August 16, 2022

by Blake Farmer

Some rural hospitals are in such bad shape, they're selling for next to nothing. One company is snapping several distressed or closed hospitals in rural Tennessee, hoping to turn a profit.

Health & Safety

Rural NC hospitals struggling to find workers

4:27pm April 28, 2022

by Paul Garber

Some smaller hospitals are facing staff shortages that have caused administrators to change the way they provide care, speakers at a virtual town hall on the state of rural health care in North Car

Medical workers with Delta Health Center prepare to vaccinate people in Leland, Miss., last week. In some places, rural hospital workers have been slow to get the vaccine themselves.

Why Lagging COVID Vaccine Rate At Rural Hospitals 'Needs To Be Fixed Now'

10:16am May 04, 2021

by Tamara Keith

When it comes to persuading people to get a COVID-19 vaccine, health care professionals are influential. But in some rural communities, hospital staff themselves are hanging back.

Queue Listen Now

Saint Luke's Hospital of Kansas City is one of the 18 hospitals in the Saint Luke's Health System. Two-thirds of the COVID-19 patients transferred to Saint Luke's from rural areas need intensive care. "We get the sickest of the sick," says Dr. Marc Larsen

Rural Areas Send Their Sickest Patients To The Cities, Straining Hospital Capacity

9:40pm November 23, 2020

by Alex Smith

In Kansas City, hospitals are treating local COVID-19 patients as well as patients transferred from rural counties in Missouri and Kansas, where there's no mandate or culture for wearing masks.

More than 65% of the nation's small, rural hospitals took out loans from Medicare when the pandemic hit. Many now face repayment at a time when they are under great financial strain.

Rural Hospitals Teeter On Financial Cliff As COVID-19 Medicare Loans Come Due

10:02am September 22, 2020

by Sarah Jane Tribble

The federal loans were meant to help hospitals survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet they're coming due now — at a time when many rural hospitals are still desperate for help.

When the pandemic hit this spring, U.S. rural hospitals lost an estimated 70% of their income as patients avoided the emergency room, doctor's appointments and elective surgeries. "It was devastating," says Maggie Elehwany of the National Rural Health Ass

Health & Safety

Rural Hospitals Are Sinking Under COVID-19 Financial Pressures

7:00am August 22, 2020

by Sarah Jane Tribble

America's rural hospitals were struggling even before the pandemic. Now, the loss of revenue from months of deferred treatments and surgeries have pulled more to the brink, as federal relief fades.

The recently closed Pickens County Medical Center in Carrollton, Ala., is one of the latest health care facilities to fall victim to a wave of rural hospital shutdowns across the U.S. in recent years. With hundreds of hospitals endangered, residents are w

National

Small-Town Hospitals Are Closing Just As Coronavirus Arrives In Rural America

5:00am April 09, 2020

by Kirk Siegler

Small-town hospitals were already closing at an alarming rate before COVID-19, but now the trend appears to be accelerating just as the disease arrives in rural America.

"If we're not able to address the short-term cash needs of rural hospitals, we're going to see hundreds ... close before this crisis ends," warns the head of the National Rural Hospital Association. "This is not hyperbole."

Health & Safety

Coronavirus Threatens Rural Hospitals Already At The Financial Brink

9:39am March 21, 2020

by Lauren Weber

About half of U.S. rural hospitals operate in the red on a good day. Now facing a pandemic, hospital CEOs warn that, without federal help, their doors may close when the community most needs them.

Study Of Rural Hospitals Vulnerable To Closing Ranks N.C. High On List

11:56am March 02, 2020

by Neal Charnoff

A national study shows that North Carolina ranks high on a list of states with community hospitals in danger of closing.