Rural hospitals eye service expansions to weather federal cuts

Rural hospitals eye service expansions to weather federal cuts 
Modern Healthcare; by Alex Kacik; 7/14/25 
Rural hospitals are hopeful they can add rather than reduce services to help soften the blow from looming Medicaid and Medicare cuts. ...  If rural providers cannot recruit physicians, lean more heavily on philanthropic donors or find other ways to reduce their reliance on Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement to get ahead of cuts in the law, hospitals will be forced to pare back services or close their doors, industry observers said. ... In response, rural providers have accelerated ongoing operational adjustments, including renegotiating vendor contracts, beefing up their coding and billing processes, freezing new hires and standardizing daily tasks to reduce administrative waste. But those tweaks alone cannot sustain rural hospitals, so some providers are aiming to grow surgeries, infusions and other services to boost their bottom lines, executives said.