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The prevailing debate over HR-1’s Rural Health Transformation Program has centered on what the program won’t deliver. Some rural leaders have raised questions about whether the $50 billion initiative will reach the providers it was designed to support; separate concerns…
For Sutter North Medical Group, the math of rural healthcare in California is challenging. Travel north or west from Yuba City, and commercial insurance coverage drops precipitously — from roughly 40% of patients to 20% or below. The populations that…
The Maryland Department of Health awarded $80 million to 41 grantees in the first round of funding under the Rural Health Transformation Program, Gov. Wes Moore announced Aug. 10. The awards fund projects to expand primary care, behavioral health and…
Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth Health has received an $11.8 million federal grant to establish the Center for Aging with Serious Illness, a multidisciplinary research program focused on older adults with serious illness. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of…
The Health Resources and Services Administration has opened applications for nearly $140 million in new grant funding aimed at expanding healthcare access and strengthening rural health systems. The funding, announced June 29, will support rural hospitals, telehealth, physician workforce development,…
‘Rip off the Band-Aid and start over’: Rural healthcare leaders debate policy reform
As CMS begins distributing first-year awards from the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program, three healthcare leaders gathered at the inaugural Becker’s Rural Healthcare Summit on June 12 and offered sharply divergent views on whether federal investment can fix what…
Most rural hospitals no longer deliver babies — a critical service many can’t afford
Less than half of rural hospitals in the U.S. still offer labor and delivery services, and researchers warn the situation will worsen unless commercial payers, Medicaid programs and employers change how they pay for maternity care. A June 8 report…
The New Mexico Health Care Authority announced a $76.2 million federal funding opportunity through Healthy Horizons, a component of the state’s Rural Health Transformation Program, to expand specialty, maternal, behavioral health and chronic disease care. The Santa Fe-based authority said…
Cottage Hospital in Woodsville, N.H., was facing a negative 16% margin less than a year ago — and Holly McCormack, the hospital’s president and CEO, knew the math wasn’t going to fix itself. Travel staff costs had ballooned into the…
Indiana secured federal approval to update its hospital assessment fee and state-directed payment programs, according to a May 15 news release. Under the reforms, hospital assessments are maximized at the 6% federal limit, and assessments are based on net patient…