Data on Rural Hospitals

Trend in Hospital Margins

This table shows whether profits and losses have been increasing or decreasing at rural hospitals and hospitals serving rural areas. Financial data shown are from the Medicare Cost Reports available as of January 2025; the 2024 column is blank for hospitals whose fiscal year 2024 report is not yet available. The margins shown for a year are based on the hospital fiscal year that ended in that year or that ended by March 31 of the following year.

Definitions of the variables are provided below the table.

Information About the Data

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. Total margins in 2021 and 2022 were unusually high for many hospitals because of the special federal pandemic assistance they received in those years.

Data on margins are not shown if no Cost Report for the full fiscal year is available, if revenue data were not included in the Cost Report, or if the data appeared to be erroneous.

Margins are not shown for some hospitals because they do not receive payments based on the number and types of services they deliver or report revenue in the same way as other hospitals do.

Total Expenses is based on the most recent Cost Report available.

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