240th Podcast: Brian Alexander Discusses His Recently Published, "The Hospital: Life, Death and Dollars in a Small American Town" (June 22nd)
www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com
In The Hospital, Mr. Alexander provides an account of Bryan, Ohio's Community Hospitals and Wellness Centers (or CHWCs) hospital’s efforts to stay solvent between 2018 and 2020. The work, in many ways is a companion to Nick Freudenberg's "At What Cost, Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health (I interviewed Prof. Freudenberg on May 20th), is particularly timely because rural hospitals, that serve roughly one in five Americans, are closing at a record rate. For example, 136 have closed since 2010 and currently over 500 are at risk of closing. The demise of rural hospitals is largely due to decades of poor-to-dire economic circumstances, largely zero wage growth for non-degreed workers, particularly in Ohio and the five other Rust Belt states. The consequence thereof has been approximately 100,000 annual "deaths of despair." (See Case and Deaton's 2020 volume by the same title.) The demise of rural hospitals generally and
240th Podcast: Brian Alexander Discusses His Recently Published, "The Hospital: Life, Death and Dollars in a Small American Town" (June 22nd)
240th Podcast: Brian Alexander Discusses His…
240th Podcast: Brian Alexander Discusses His Recently Published, "The Hospital: Life, Death and Dollars in a Small American Town" (June 22nd)
In The Hospital, Mr. Alexander provides an account of Bryan, Ohio's Community Hospitals and Wellness Centers (or CHWCs) hospital’s efforts to stay solvent between 2018 and 2020. The work, in many ways is a companion to Nick Freudenberg's "At What Cost, Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health (I interviewed Prof. Freudenberg on May 20th), is particularly timely because rural hospitals, that serve roughly one in five Americans, are closing at a record rate. For example, 136 have closed since 2010 and currently over 500 are at risk of closing. The demise of rural hospitals is largely due to decades of poor-to-dire economic circumstances, largely zero wage growth for non-degreed workers, particularly in Ohio and the five other Rust Belt states. The consequence thereof has been approximately 100,000 annual "deaths of despair." (See Case and Deaton's 2020 volume by the same title.) The demise of rural hospitals generally and