Source: WNCT, 12/12/21

 Rural hospitals have long struggled financially and the situation is getting worse. In the mid-1940s, Congress provided funding to build hospitals in rural areas, leading to a rise in their numbers, especially in the South. By the 1980s and 1990s, those hospitals began closing, partly a result of Medicare spending. Since 2005, 181 rural hospitals have shut their doors. The causes are many: an older, poorer population; advances in outpatient medical procedures; and more recently, a decision among many Southern states...

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