Story highlights Many rural hospitals are in danger of having to shut their doors

Analysis: Senate health care bill could cut revenues to rural providers by $1.3 billion each year

(CNN) One Monday in 2013, Dr. Alluri Raju learned that the only hospital in rural Richland, Georgia, would close on Wednesday. But there were still patients in hospital beds and surgeries scheduled for Wednesday.

Raju pleaded with the hospital's owner to keep it open a few more days.

Ultimately, the hospital closed that Friday, leaving the rural town without a hospital for miles. Raju, who had been the hospital's chief of staff, is now the only doctor left in the town a two-hour drive south of Atlanta.

The Stewart-Webster Hospital closed in 2013, leaving residents in rural Richland, Georgia, without another hospital for miles.

"I was very devastated when the hospital was closed," Raju said. "I was so attached to it. I practiced there for 33 years."

Nationwide, about 80 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, according to the Chartis Center for Rural Health. Another 673 rural hospitals are in danger of shutting their doors. Many providers worry that the newly proposed health care legislation -- and in particular its proposed cuts to Medicaid -- could push a number of hospitals over the edge.