Cuts threaten rural hospitals 'hanging on by their fingernails'

Michigan is doing reasonably well in regard to rural hospital closings at least until Medicaid Expansion disappears...

https://goo.gl/uRhKJx

One Monday in 2013, Dr. Alluri Raju learned that the only hospital in rural Richland, Georgia, would close on Wednesday. But there were still patients in hospital beds and surgeries scheduled for Wednesday.

Raju pleaded with the hospital's owner to keep it open a few more days.

Ultimately, the hospital closed that Friday, leaving the rural town without a hospital for miles. Raju, who had been the hospital's chief of staff, is now the only doctor left in the town a two-hour drive south of Atlanta.

Nationwide, about 80 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, according to the Chartis Center for Rural Health.Another 673 rural hospitals are in danger of shutting their doors. Many providers worry that the newly proposed health care legislation -- and in particular its proposed cuts to Medicaid -- could push a number of hospitals over the edge.

"These hospitals are hanging on by their fingernails," said Maggie Elehwany, vice president of government affairs for the National Rural Health Association, a nonprofit health research and advocacy group. "If you leave this legislation as is, it's a death sentence for individuals in rural America."