Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Healthcare business and finance

Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Rural Hospitals
Explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural hospital financial performance. Presents data on profitability and patient care margin trends from 2017 to 2022. Describes characteristics of rural hospitals in three categories of patient care margins: those that always had negative margins, always had positive margins, and those with mixed margins. Discusses the impact of COVID-19 relief funding on total hospital margins.
Author(s): Saleema A. Karim, Nathan W. Carroll, Paula H. Song, Adam Atherly
Date: 04/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: American Hospital Association, Department of Health Administration at the Virginia Commonwealth University College of Health Professions
view details
Medicare Payment for Rural or Geographically Isolated Hospitals
Displays data on Medicare payment adjustments for Sole Community Hospitals, Medicare-Dependent Hospitals, Low-Volume Hospitals, and Critical Access Hospitals. Includes information on the number of qualifying hospitals by state and eligibility criteria.
Date: 04/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Congressional Research Service
view details
Protecting, Connecting and Thriving: Rural Public Health and Healthcare
Webinar recording of a panel discussing rural public health topics including rural health disparities, mortality, COVID-19, Medicaid coverage, primary care, graduate medical education, and services for veterans. Transcript is available in the video description.
Date: 04/2024
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organizations: The RURAL Study, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
view details
CAH Financial Indicators Report: Summary of Indicator Medians by State
Presents state and national median values of 29 financial indicators included in the Critical Access Hospital Measurement and Performance Assessment System (CAHMPAS). Provides an overview of each measurement and reports median values by state. Indicators represent seven areas of financial performance: profitability, liquidity, capital structure, revenue, cost, utilization, and other.
Date: 04/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Flex Monitoring Team
view details
Community Health Centers and Value-Based Payment
Discusses the role of Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics, alternative payment models, and the challenges with implementing value-based payment.
Author(s): Janet Weiner
Date: 04/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: University of Pennsylvania Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics
view details
Rural Age-Friendly Health Systems, with Alan Morgan, Rani Snyder, and Jed Hansen
An episode of the Exploring Rural Health podcast featuring Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, Rani Snyder, Vice President for Program at John A. Hartford Foundation, and Jed Hansen, Executive Director of the Nebraska Rural Health Association. Focuses on the Rural Age-Friendly Initiative, a John A. Hartford/NRHA partnership.
Date: 04/2024
Type: Audio
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
view details
Dental Therapy Resource Guide
Describes the role of dental therapists in expanding access to dental health care in rural and underserved communities. Outlines the status of state laws and regulations regarding dental therapy education and practice as of August 2021. Compares the scope of practice of dental therapists to other dental care providers.
Date: 04/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Association of Community Health Centers
view details
What Happens to Rural Hospitals During a Ransomware Attack? Evidence from Medicare Data
Explores the effects of ransomware attacks on hospital operations. Analyzes data from the Tracking Healthcare Ransomware Events and Traits (THREAT) database, which includes information for every hospital identified as experiencing a ransomware attack between 2016 and 2021, and linked to Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) claims data. Compares the characteristics of rural and urban hospitals that experienced a ransomware attack. Describes the impact of ransomware attacks on rural and urban inpatient admissions, outpatient and emergency room visit volume, and travel distance and time to the next closest hospital not experiencing an attack.
Author(s): Hannah T. Neprash, Claire C. McGlave, Katie Rydberg, Carrie Henning-Smith
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 40(4), 728-737
Date: 03/2024
Type: Document
view details
Primary Care Spending in Medicare Fee-for-Service: An Illustrative Analysis Using Alternative Definitions of Primary Care
Discusses the importance of primary care to promote positive health outcomes and how reimbursement rates illustrate what healthcare areas are given priority. Utilizes Medicare fee-for-service data to estimate primary care spending and provides data breakdowns according to sex, race, age, insurance status, rural versus urban location, and more.
Date: 03/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
view details
A Lack of Behavioral Health Providers in Medicare and Medicaid Impedes Enrollees' Access to Care
Examines the availability of behavioral health providers who actively serve Medicare or Medicaid enrollees in 20 counties, 10 urban and 10 rural, across 10 states in 2021. Explores the extent to which traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid enrollees received behavioral health services and whether they used telehealth or in-person services. Offers recommendations to encourage more behavioral health providers to serve these enrollees and expand coverage to additional behavioral health provider types. Includes rural and urban comparisons throughout.
Additional links: Report Highlights
Date: 03/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Office of Inspector General (HHS)
view details