Medicare is closing smaller hospitals

A previous article by the author reported responses to individual questions from a survey sent to solo practitioners in South Dakota. The survey responses were noted to have some correlations which have been extracted for this article. These correlations reveal a systematic bias against small town hospitals and small town doctors by the Medicare rules and the application of those rules. It appears that Medicare is acting vigorously to fulfill a prediction made by the head of the Health Care Financing Administration to close one out of eight hospitals in the United States. It further appears that almost all of the hospitals being closed are small hospitals which have lower costs. In this situation, small towns will have difficulty in attracting and keeping physicians.