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Pandemic Stresses Already Fragile Rural Health Care Systems

KHN Midwest correspondent Lauren Weber appeared on Newsy’s “Morning Rush” with Lauren Magarino to talk about the unique challenges rural health care providers face amid the coronavirus pandemic — even before their communities get overrun with a surge of COVID-19 cases.

Watch the Newsy interview here.

She previously joined WAMU’s “1A” show with guest host Sasha-Ann Simons for a roundtable discussion on the issues rural hospitals are facing.

Weber has reported on how the suspension of elective surgery and other procedures amid the pandemic has threatened the financial survival of the country’s rural hospitals — and how hospital executives don’t feel the first round of federal bailout relief money was enough. She also has written about the front-line fight at a rural Louisiana hospital that forecasts what the pandemic will look like when it hits the rest of rural America.

Listen to the “1A” interview here.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

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