A new analysis from the national nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation reports slimmer operating margins for rural hospitals (2.2 percent versus 3.9 percent in states with Medicaid expansion) for the period from July 2021 through June 2022. Moreover, the report says these margins would have dropped to 1.2 percent in expansion states and -0.7 percent in non-expansion states if not for federal COVID-19 relief funds.
