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If you think healthcare in the U.S. is broken, that’s particularly true in rural America. Hospitals in rural areas have been in dire straits for decades. It’s tough to make the math work out – shrinking Medicaid payments, massive workforce shortages, sparse populations and geographic isolation mean many providers struggle to keep their doors open.
The federal government hopes to revitalize rural healthcare with a five-year, $50 billion fund it launched last year. States are starting to receive that money. But how far it will go toward solving rural areas’ healthcare woes is very much up in the air, writes Kevin J. Bennett, a rural health policy researcher at the University of South Carolina.
Much of the money will go toward technology upgrades that rural providers may not be able to sustain, he explains. “A disproportionate focus on technology runs the risk of overlooking the most basic needs of rural healthcare systems,” he writes, “such as ensuring that rural areas have a healthy healthcare workforce – and providers that get paid for the work they do.”
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