Fact check on claims about closings of rural U.S. hospitals.

Vance Wrongly Blames Rural Hospital Closures on Immigrants in the Country Illegally - KFF Health News Experts disputed the claim by Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, noting that a range of other issues — from low reimbursement rates to declining patient use — combine to cause these facilities to shutter. khnkytjaw KFF Health News

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Rural hospitals tend to have low patient volumes, which presents its own set of problems. They’re frequently located in small communities, and some residents may choose to travel to hospitals in bigger cities where they can get more complex care, what researchers call “hospital bypass.”

That small number of patients can cause financial losses at small rural hospitals, said Harold Miller, president and CEO of the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, a national health care payment and delivery systems policy center.

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