A new GAO analysis explores why urban hospitals – most of them community safety-net hospitals – fail and close.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, urban hospitals generally close for one or a combination of five reasons:

• financial decline due to financial losses or declining profits
• aging physical infrastructure that was outdated and costly to maintain
• low or declining inpatient volume prior to closure
• challenges operating as an independent hospital without the support of a multi-hospital system
• poor management practices such as incorrect billing or lack of payment for services
• separate ownership interests, such as one entity owning the hospital business but another owning the real estate

Learn more about the hospitals the GAO examined and how it reached these conclusions in its report “Urban Hospitals:  Factors Contributing to Selected Hospital Closures and Related Changes in Available Health Care Services.”