Hospital lobby projects that the best scenario for rural hospitals' profits this year is an overall reduction of 38%

American Hospital Association chart; for a larger version, click on it.

The pandemic has drained many hospitals' financial reserves, and rural hospitals are some of the worst off. The problems began early in the pandemic when elective surgeries and other non-emergency care had to be postponed; hospitals get most of their revenue from such procedures. As hospitals resume normal operations, the revenue shortages persist.

In 2020, hospitals were projected to lose $323 billion and more than four dozen went bankrupt or closed, according to a new analysis prepared for the American Hospital Association. This year hospitals could lose an additional $122 billion, the report says, causing nearly 40% of the nation's more than 6,000 hospitals to operate at a loss, Christine Vestal reports for Stateline. 

"But that’s only if the largest vaccination program in U.S. history runs smoothly and Covid-19 hospitalizations continue to drop, Vestal reports. "A pause in vaccinations or a new surge in Covid-19 cases could result in at least half of all hospitals operating in the red this year, the analysis found."

Rural hospitals are expected to do even worse. "Under the most optimistic scenario, profit margins for rural hospitals are expected to decline 38% this year. Last year, 16 of the nation’s roughly 1,800 rural hospitals shuttered, in part due to revenue declines caused by the pandemic," Vestal reports. That's on top of the 133 rural hospitals, mostly in the South, that have shuttered over the past decade.