More Hospitals In Rural Areas Are Closing, Data Indicate.

“The Upshot” blog that more and more rural hospitals are closing, especially in states which did not expand Medicaid under the ACA. Earlier this year, “the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission found that of the 67 rural hospitals that closed since 2013, about one-third were more than 20 miles from the next closest hospital.” Meanwhile, a Health Affairs study revealed that more than “half of rural counties now lack obstetric services.” Frakt adds that after the Times published an article “about the struggles of rural hospitals, some doctors responded by noting that rising malpractice premiums had made it, as one put it, ‘economically infeasible nowadays to practice obstetrics in rural areas.’” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/upshot/a-sense-of-alarm-as-rural-hospitals-keep-closing.html