Charlton Memorial Hospital in southeast Georgia, which will suspend operations Friday, is set to become the third rural hospital in the state to close this year.

The Hospital Authority of Charlton County cited ''financial instability'' in announcing its decision to close the nonprofit facility's doors. A family practice clinic will continue providing services, the authority said.

The decision on the Folkston facility followed closings of Richland and Arlington hospitals earlier this year.

"The hospital has been experiencing financial problems for a number of years,'' Charlton Memorial CEO H.D. Cannington told GHN on Monday. The facility, he added, "has a tremendous amount of indigent care.''

Local residents recently petitioned the Charlton County Commission to assist the struggling hospital. According to a WTLV report, county officials pointed out in response that the hospital was continuing to lose money, and they cited the increase in its debt - from $1 million in 2000 to more than $5.8 million this year.

Georgia enrollment in Medicaid and PeachCare has jumped to almost 1.9 million, a new record, state officials said Wednesday.

Put in perspective, that's nearly one of every five Georgians. It's more than the population of several U.S. states.

And Georgia expects another 65,000 to enroll in Medicaid this fiscal year and the next one due to the Affordable Care Act, even though the state does not plan to expand its Medicaid program as envisioned by the 2010 law.

Georgia Medicaid chief Jerry Dubberly presented figures on the growth and costs of the government programs to state lawmakers convening the first meeting of the Joint Study Committee on Medicaid Reform.

The panel was created by a house resolution passed this year by the Georgia General Assembly. Six members each from the House and Senate were appointed, as well as six non-legislator members named by Gov. Nathan Deal.

MILWAUKEE - Rural residents will likely benefit from the health care overhaul, but many will be hurt by their states' refusal to expand Medicaid coverage, a health economist said Tuesday during a conference on rural health care.

Twenty-one states, including Wisconsin, have opted not to expand Medicaid eligibility, while another half-dozen are still debating the issue, said Tim McBride, a health economist with the Rural Policy Research Institute's Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis.

He told hospital administrators and others gathered in Milwaukee that when researchers look at rural residents who could be covered by expanded Medicaid, more than half live in states that have opted out. In comparison, more than half of the urban residents eligible for coverage under the expansion live in states that are going forward with it.

"Not expanding Medicaid . . . is a rural issue," McBride said.