Health

Church Attendance Slump Caused Mental Health Crisis, Harvard Professor Suggests

KFF Health News -  A recently released report from the health analytics and consulting firm Chartis paints a clear picture of the grim reality Ryerse and other small-hospital managers face. In its financial analysis, the firm concluded that half of rural hospitals lost money in the past year, up from 43% the previous year. It also identified 418 rural hospitals across the United States that are ​“vulnerable to closure."  Mark Holmes, director of the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina, said the report’s findings weren’t a surprise, since the financial nosedive it depicted has been a concern of researchers and rural health advocates for decades. The report noted that small-town hospitals in states that expanded Medicaid eligibility have fared better financially than those in states that didn’t.