{"id":25757,"date":"2026-03-26T08:40:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T12:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=25757"},"modified":"2026-03-26T08:40:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T12:40:54","slug":"a-50-billion-fund-to-help-rural-hospitals-could-actually-lead-to-closures-and-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=25757","title":{"rendered":"A $50 billion fund to help rural hospitals could actually lead to closures and cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(By Aaron Bolton,  Arielle Zionts for NPR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The emergency department at Big Sandy Medical Center in Montana is just one room, with a single curtain between two beds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s one of the many parts of the 25-bed rural hospital that need updating, CEO Ron Weins said as he walked the halls. The facility is an essential service to the community, Weins said.  Continue reading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/03\/26\/nx-s1-5760925\/rural-health-transformation-fund-hospitals-montana\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/03\/26\/nx-s1-5760925\/rural-health-transformation-fund-hospitals-montana\">here&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"54\" class=\"wp-image-3902\" style=\"width: 150px;\" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/NPR-logo.png\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/NPR-logo.png 152w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/NPR-logo-150x55.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><strong>Notice:<\/strong>\u00a0The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By Aaron Bolton, Arielle Zionts for NPR) The emergency department at Big Sandy Medical Center in Montana is just one<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,587],"tags":[238,410],"class_list":["post-25757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care-finance","category-rural-health","tag-healthcare-finance","tag-rural-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25758,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25757\/revisions\/25758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}