Rural Hospitals – Resources

Medicare Payment Basics: Outpatient Hospital Services Payment System
Outlines Medicare's payments for outpatient hospital services, including considerations for rural sole community hospitals.
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Medicare Payment Basics: Hospital Acute Inpatient Services Payment System
Overview of Medicare payments to hospitals for acute inpatient care. Includes information on rate setting, Medicare payments for medical education, payments to Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospitals (DSH), new technology payments special payments for rural hospitals, quality incentive payments and penalties, and payment rate updates.
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Costs of Treat-and-Release Emergency Department Visits in the United States, 2021
Explores the cost of treat-and-release emergency department (ED) visits in the United States in 2021. Describes findings from an analysis of the 2021 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Nationwide Emergency Department Sample. Presents data on the aggregate costs, average cost, and number of ED visits by patient and hospital characteristics, including patient age; sex; primary expected payer; community-level income; and metropolitan, micropolitan, or rural status.
Date: 09/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
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Who Owns Rural Hospitals? A Comparison of Findings across Four National Datasets
Explores rural hospital ownership characteristics as reported across four national datasets: the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Healthcare Cost Reporting Information System (HCRIS); the CMS Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS); the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP); and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Compares rural hospitals with consistent ownership characteristics across datasets with those with inconsistent reports of ownership by Census division, Medicare payment classification, long-term care service provision, Rural Health Clinic (RHC) service provision, and more.
Author(s): Anastasia Dai, Tyler Malone
Date: 09/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Rural Health Research Program
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AHRQ Report to Congress: An Assessment of Sepsis in the United States and its Burden on Hospital Care
Offers an assessment of hospital care for sepsis between 2016 and 2021 including trends in hospital utilization, morbidity, in-hospital mortality, and disparities related to various patient demographics and geographic factors. Discusses rural throughout.
Date: 09/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
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Embracing the Inevitable: Succession Planning for Rural Healthcare Organizations
Explains the importance of succession planning for rural boards and CEOs. Shares a range of approaches, including written policies and mentorship, as well as offering insights from rural health leaders and resources to help begin the process of succession planning.
Author(s): Brendan Stermer
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 09/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Financial Performance of Rural and Urban Hospitals in the Medicare Shared Savings Program
Presents financial performance trends of hospitals that participated in Medicare's Shared Savings Program (SSP) from 2011-2018. Compares trends in 6 financial outcomes between SSP and non-SSP hospitals, and differences in these trends among rural and urban hospitals.
Author(s): Huang Huang, Xi Zhu, Fred Ullrich, A. Clinton MacKinney, Keith Mueller
Date: 09/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
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Where and What Separates Rural from Urban Hospital Closures?
A brief report that compares characteristics of rural and metro hospital closures. Utilizes 2010-2021 American Hospital Association Annual Survey data to examine rural versus metro hospital closures by hospital bed size, hospital type, accreditation status, location in Medicaid expansion state, and more.
Author(s): Sara D. Turbow, Jennifer Lom, Mohammed K. Ali
Citation: Journal of Hospital Medicine, 19(9), 812-815
Date: 09/2024
Type: Document
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Research Insights: How Do Ransomware Attacks Impact Rural Hospitals?
Provides an overview of a study regarding the likelihood of ransomware attacks on, and the degree to which such attacks result in operational disruptions at, urban and rural hospitals. Describes how the findings of this study can inform cybersecurity regulations and protocols in rural settings.
Date: 08/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation
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Rural and Urban Hospital Differences in Inpatient Stays Involving Sepsis, 2019 and 2021
Explores inpatient hospital stays related to sepsis using the 2019 and 2021 State Inpatient Databases (SID) for 47 States and the District of Columbia. Presents data on the percentage of stays related to sepsis, lengths of stay, costs of stay, and outcomes for sepsis stays for over 4,200 community hospitals. Compares data for rural and urban hospitals by ownership, bed size, teaching hospital status, and safety net designation.
Author(s): Joanna Jiang, Lan Liang, Meghana Chandra, Sai Loganathan
Date: 08/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
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