Indiana’s health workforce shortage is especially hard on the rural areas of the state. The scarcity of physician training opportunities in these areas may be contributing to the absence of rural doctors.

Two rival hospitals in Terre Haute, Indiana, pulled back their merger application Monday, just days before the state was due to rule on the deal amid growing backlash to such medical monopolies.

Hundreds of people and the Federal Trade Commission weighed in on a proposed hospital merger in Terre Haute, Ind.

When a community is facing a disaster, health care facilities can become a vital part of the response. Rural hospitals can face unique challenges in those moments — but also have some advantages over larger hospitals in cities.

Some Indiana hospital budgets are in the red as the collective operating margin for state hospitals continues to be under 1%.

Indiana lawmakers have seized on high health care costs as a priority problem to tackle this legislative session, but rural hospitals with thin profit margins are worried — and want more help from the state.

In many rural towns, local hospitals are community fixtures. When they close, the entire community feels the ripple effects.

Transferring a critically ill patients is becoming increasingly difficult, according to hospital leaders, government officials and industry advocates. Patients are spending hours — or sometimes days — in rural hospital emergency rooms waiting for an ambulance.

Cities are getting hit the hardest by the coronavirus right now. In Indiana, nearly half of the confirmed cases are in Marion County, but with the expected surge still weeks away, rural communities face additional challenges.

In Missouri, six rural hospitals closed in the last five years. It's part of a group of states that have seen higher rates of closures -- states that haven't expanded Medicaid.