What Will Ensure Rural Hospitals’ Survival? More $$ and Good Broadband, Experts Say

What do rural hospitals need from Congress and state legislatures to survive, besides more money? The answer is — more money, several experts and hospital lobbyists said Wednesday during a webinar sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Asked that question, George Pink, PhD, deputy director of the Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, replied, “Well, I’m going to disobey your instruction and say ‘Increased funding,'” including raising the annual increases allotted to the federal government’s Critical Access Hospital program.