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.
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.
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.
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.
Sheila Bond, MD, talked about the latest trends regarding integration of AI in healthcare.
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.
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.
How Apella leverages technology to increase OR efficiency.
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.
People working the most vital occupations, like farmers and ranchers, call the most remote areas in this country home. Their health shouldn’t suffer due to their choice of employment.
More than 700 hospitals across the rural U.S. are at risk of closing due to their financial woes — and for more than half of these hospitals, the risk of closure is immediate, according to a new report. The report argued this is due largely to inadequate reimbursement from health plans.
It is imperative that everyone in the care continuum knows the warning signs of peripartum depression.