Data on Rural Hospitals

Size and Financial Status of Rural Hospitals and Hospitals Serving Rural Areas

This table includes:

• all hospitals currently located in an area that is designated as “rural”;
• hospitals that have closed since 2005 that were located in an area designated as rural;
• hospitals located in an area that is not designated as rural, but which have been designated as a Critical Access Hospital, a Sole Community Hospital, an Essential Access Hospital, or a Rural Referral Center.

Financial data are only shown if the hospital filed a Medicare Cost Report in 2012 or later. Financial data shown are from the Medicare Cost Reports available as of April 2023. (The same data are shown in the map on the main page.)

• Total Expenses shows the relative size of the hospital in terms of both inpatient and outpatient services. The amount shown is based on the most recent Cost Report available, which is either 2021 or 2022 for most hospitals.

• Average Margins show the profitability of the hospital during the three most recent years for which Cost Reports are available, excluding 2020 because of the unusual changes in costs and revenues during the initial months of the coronavirus pandemic. Year-by-year data are shown in Trend in Rural Hospital Margins.

  • The Patient Service Margin represents the profit or loss from revenues and costs associated with health care services delivered to patients.
  • The Total Margin includes revenues and costs that are not directly tied to patient care as well as revenues and expenses on patient services.

Many small rural hospitals have a positive total margin despite incurring losses on patient services because they receive local tax revenues or state grants that offset the losses. If these other sources of revenue were to decrease or be terminated, the hospital would no longer have revenues sufficient to cover its costs.

Additional details on the methodology are available in the Methodology section.

The table can be sorted by clicking the arrows next to each column heading. The data can be restricted to a specific state or hospital or to hospitals within a specific range of expenses or margins using the filtering boxes.