GAO September 19, 2025
Report to Congressional Requesters
Highlights
Why GAO Did This Study
Hospitals play a critical role in delivering health care services to their communities. Approximately half of U.S. hospitals are in urban areas, and closures of urban hospitals outpaced new openings from 2019 to 2023. GAO and others have previously reported on hospital closures in rural areas, but few studies have been conducted on the closure of urban hospitals.
GAO was asked to examine the bankruptcy and closure of health care facilities. This report describes the closure of five selected urban hospitals, specifically: (1) the financial conditions and other factors that contributed to their closure and (2) how health care service availability in communities changed after their closure. GAO selected a...
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