It’s part of an accelerating trend that’s reshaped how Americans get health care: Larger health systems gobble up smaller facilities in a bid for financial stability. Less than half of rural hospitals still offer labor and delivery services. Once those rural hospitals were acquired by larger systems, they were 30% less likely to still offer labor and delivery services five years later. Other states, meanwhile, have paved the way for health mergers in a bid to save failing rural hospitals. Massive cuts to Medicaid also in the law could have devastating impacts on rural hospitals struggling to stay afloat, however.