Report examines impact of COVID-19 on rural hospitals

Almost half of rural hospitals had negative total margins in 2022 and negative patient care margins both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report prepared for the AHA by faculty at the Virginia Commonwealth University College of Health Professions. When provider relief funds are excluded from margins, the average total margin for rural hospitals was lower in 2022, the most recent year with data available, than in any year since 2017. 

“Provider relief funds were successful in preventing financial losses for many hospitals during the pandemic and, in some cases, contributed to positive hospital margins in 2021,” the report concludes. “However, as this funding declined in 2022, and hospitals faced persistent, and in some cases worsening, financial challenges, margins dropped. … This decline is especially concerning for the large percentage of hospitals that struggled financially even prior to the pandemic.”