The purpose of this study was to assess the financial importance of the Sole Community Hospital (SCH) program by investigating: 1) the proportion of SCHs that was reimbursed at the hospital specific rate between 2006 and 2015; 2) the profitability of providing services to Medicare patients in SCHs between 2006 and 2015, and; 3) the financial consequences if the SCH program had not existed in 2015.
Conclusion: If the SCH program did not exist, the study findings suggest that there would be: 1) significant financial consequences for most SCHs, and 2) geographic variation in the magnitude of the financial consequences.
Contact Information:
Sharita Thomas, MMP
North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center
sharita.thomas@unc.edu