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.
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.
Across the nation, state-based health insurance exchanges are searching for ways to better serve their communities while making enrollment easier, more personal, and more accessible for everyone.
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.
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.
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 $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.
Greenway Health blends smart technology with human expertise to elevate revenue cycle.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In a landscape where complexity has long been the norm, the power of one lies not just in unification, but in intelligence and automation.
Pam Austin, CIO of Ballad Health, detailed how her health system is helping clinicians spend less time on screens and more time with patients.
If the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is signed into law, it would result in a $50.4 billion reduction in federal Medicaid spending on rural hospitals over the next decade, which could put 338 rural hospitals at risk of closure, according to new analyses.
Virtual care isn’t just a “nice-to-have” for rural hospitals — it’s necessary to ensure patients are getting the care they need, said Dave Newman, chief medical officer of virtual care at Sanford Health.
Dan Liljenquist, Intermountain Health’s chief strategy officer, said that more large health systems should employ a hub-and-spoke model to ensure that rural providers can thrive. Under this model, large health systems partner with rural hospitals — with the rural “spoke” hospitals gaining access to the larger “hub” health system’s technology, staff, medication discounts and more.
We need to equip pharmacists with technology that can help them to make impactful clinical interventions in the pharmacy and reimburse them for these services, which would help to address the provider shortage.