Recognition of the Issue of Low Volume
From a study published in 1987, investigating the comparatively high costs of Sole Community Hospitals:
- “One important reason for these high costs appears to be low occupancy rates for rural SCH’s.”
- Freiman and Cromwell, 1987
From a study of the first three years of Medicare PPS:
- 100% of largest urban hospitals and 98.1% of major teaching hospitals had positive payment margins
- 67.8% of smallest rural hospitals had positive payment options
- Guterman, et al., 1988
Rural Policy Research Center 11/8/99