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.
These two promising changes in national healthcare policy could transform access to care for millions of Americans.
In a landscape where complexity has long been the norm, the power of one lies not just in unification, but in intelligence and automation.
For payers, that means the work ahead is not simply contracting with virtual providers — it’s rebuilding the infrastructure that builds trust as members find the right care for them. Here are three elements that need rethinking.
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.
Clinicians drop off early in the pipeline because they receive little context and minimal support. The only way to solve this problem is to create a system that drives long-term retention and workforce stability by supporting clinician well-being.
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.
CEO and neuroscientist Dr. Iftach Dolev on how the new device can bring a powerful tool to psychiatrists and neurologists alike.
This is a great opportunity to align your strategies with CMS’s evolving framework by refining care models to focus on impact, investing in digital capabilities that support data use, and continuing to build infrastructure that addresses disparities in care.
From the operating room to the front desk, robotics are now being integrated into a variety of applications with the purpose of freeing up time and services for healthcare workers to do what they do best, patient care.
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.
Moving forward, it’s essential for the health tech and medical fields to work together to make remote patient monitoring much more widely available and affordable for everyone across the country, with and without insurance.
Alan Murray on improving access for medical transportation.
For community hospitals, it’s a sign of the need for a different approach to patient financial communication and payment — one that meets patients where they are and protects their dignity while avoiding undue stress on the organization’s bottom line.
Responding to a question about rural hospital closures, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talked about an innovation that he erroneously ascribed to the Cleveland Clinic.
While enrollment in consumer direction programs has grown, more must be done to educate, amplify, and spread awareness to ensure that all eligible individuals learn about the benefits of this alternative to traditionally delivered agency and institutional care.
Reimbursement models that align primary care with behavioral health offer low-income provider organizations serving rural Americans and other vulnerable populations an opportunity to enhance coordination and improve outcomes while generating sorely needed revenue.
Meditech is integrating Suki’s AI assistant into more than a dozen rural health systems, including St. Mary's Healthcare in New York and Decatur County Memorial Hospital in Indiana.