Urban safety-net hospitals vulnerable to Medicaid cuts: analysis

Dive Brief:

Urban safety-net hospitals are expected to be hit particularly hard by Medicaid cuts enacted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, even as lawmakers’ work to limit the financial hit has largely focused on struggling rural facilities, according to a report published this week.

Eight-five percent of hospitals most vulnerable to the reductions — critical access or safety-net facilities that are already financially distressed with a high share of Medicaid patients — operate in urban areas and serve a much larger proportion of American patients, according to the analysis by the Harvard Quality and Outcomes Lab and the New York Times.

However, Congress has largely worked to limit the impact of Medicaid cuts by focusing on rural hospitals, researchers wrote. For example, lawmakers a