UnitedHealthcare Expands Rural Healthcare Initiatives, Reduces Prior Auth Requirements
UnitedHealthcare is exempting rural providers from most prior authorization requirements.
Not All Hospitals Have Equal Resources — Knowledge Sharing Can Help Level the Playing Field
Resource-sharing across large networks of hospitals allows people to receive a higher quality of care across the country, regardless of where they live or how well-resourced their local health system may be.
Beyond Analytics: How Sellers Dorsey is Hard-Coding Value into Medicaid Policy [Video]
How to turn analytics into actual policy outcomes.
Rural America Doesn’t Need Another Framework … It Needs Care by September 2026
Sixty million rural Americans aren’t asking for another strategic framework. They’re asking for care — accessible, affordable, and delivered with dignity.
How A Small Rural Hospital Is Using AI to Catch Heart Disease Sooner
At Wayne General Hospital in rural Mississippi, clinicians are using Eko Health’s AI-powered digital stethoscope to detect heart conditions earlier in patients with limited access to specialists.
The Rural Care Crisis Is an Economic Issue, Not Just a Public Health One
As hundreds of rural hospitals face the risk of closure, healthcare leaders warn that the fallout extends far beyond patient outcomes. During a panel at ViVE in Los Angeles, healthcare leaders outlined how access to care underpins the economic stability of rural America.
Navigating Uncertainty: Hospitals Confront Medicaid Cuts
Hospitals have an opportunity to make strategic changes now that can better position both their organizations and their patients for what’s ahead. Here’s what to expect and where to focus next.
The Hidden Administrative Tasks Draining Small Practices
Small practices play a critical role in healthcare delivery, but they cannot continue to absorb ever-increasing administrative demands without consequences.
Hospital-at-Home Bodes Well for Rural Patients, Research Shows
New research from Mass General Brigham demonstrates that hospital-at-home care can safely deliver comparable outcomes for rural patients — with significant cost savings when patients are transferred home early in their hospital stay.
Rural Health Transformation Program: What States and Counties Need to Know to Optimize New Funding
With closures accelerating and communities already losing access to care, the countdown to FY 2026 is not far off. States, providers and technology partners that act now will define the future of rural health for decades; those that delay may leave billions untapped and lives at risk.
Closing the Rural Divide with Device-enabled Virtual Care
Bringing care to people where they are improves community health outcomes — we must operate with more urgency to shore up care resources in rural areas.
CMS’ New $50B Rural Health Fund — Is It Just Another Band-Aid?
CMS’ new $50 billion rural health fund seeks to help rural providers sustain care in their communities over the next five years. However, experts believe the program will not be enough to stabilize the finances of rural hospitals — especially in the face of worsening reimbursement issues, an ongoing workforce crisis and billions of dollars’ worth of Medicaid cuts on the horizon.
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Inside an Automated Healthcare Practice: Redesigning Care Around People, Not Paperwork
By reducing administrative burden and redesigning workflows around human needs, it creates space for what matters most: connection between clinicians and patients.
Stress Test: OBBBA, Rural Fragility, and Innovation
Clinging to our old models is equivalent to waiting for failure. We need to embrace the tools, team structures, and delivery models that this ongoing crisis demands.
Scaling Virtual Care Is Both a Moral and Financial Imperative, Sanford Health Exec Says
At MedCity News’ INVEST Digital Health conference, Sanford Health’s virtual care chief Dave Newman pointed out that in rural America, virtual care often determines whether patients receive treatment at all. He described how Sanford has expanded beyond video visits to include various other modalities like e-visit questionnaires, remote monitoring and even phone consults — saving patients time and money while also closing critical care gaps.
Without Clear Strategy, CMS’ $50B Rural Hospital Fund Risks Falling Short
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act introduced a new $50 billion fund to offer rural hospitals a financial lifeline. One expert cautions that this effort will fail to address systemic challenges without transparency, clear metrics and long-term infrastructure investment strategies.
The Hidden Fallout of Rural Hospital Closures: Patient Care Suffers – and So Does Data Security
Across the U.S., nearly 700 rural hospitals are at risk of closure. When they shut down, the impacts cascade: broken continuity, delayed care, and increased cyber risk in every new system a patient must navigate.
Ballad Health CIO: Tech Should ‘Fade into the Background’
Pam Austin, CIO of Ballad Health, detailed how her health system is helping clinicians spend less time on screens and more time with patients.