Access To Obstetric, Behavioral Health, And Surgical Inpatient Services After Hospital Mergers In Rural Areas

This research was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Contract No. HHSA-290-2018-00001-C. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of AHRQ or the Department of Health and Human Services. The authors gratefully acknowledge Minya Sheng, Sarah Bloemers, Michael Head, and Olivia Reding from IBM Watson Health for assistance with data management, programming, and statistical support and Mary Beth Schaefer from IBM Watson Health for providing editorial review of the manuscript. The authors thank all of the HCUP Data Partners, listed on the HCUP website, for their contributions to the data used in this study.