Tag Archives: Rural Hospitals
Freestanding Emergency Departments and Micro-Hospitals:
by Zach Smith
In a recent report by Navigant Consulting, 48% of Mississippi’s rural hospitals were rated as a high financial risk. The reasons for rural hospital closures in Mississippi, as nationwide, vary as do the possible solutions. Reasons for closures cited range from insufficient Medicare reimbursement rates to low admission volumes. Rural hospital closures create a void in geographic areas that force people to seek care elsewhere, extend travel times, and increase mortality for time-sensitive diseases. States have … Read more...
Rural Hospitals: Economic and Health Implications in Mississippi
The healthcare delivery and financing systems in the United States are evolving rapidly, and the impact on small rural hospitals is made evident by increasingly common news of closures or employee layoffs. Since 2010, 58 rural hospitals have closed nationally, mostly in the South, including two in Mississippi. Another 283 hospitals nationwide have been identified as “vulnerable,” with 22 of those in Mississippi. As a percentage of all rural hospitals in the state, Mississippi has the highest proportion of its … Read more...
