Rural Federal Advocacy and Policy

America’s rural hospitals are committed to serving their communities and ensuring local access to high-quality, affordable healthcare. The AHA is working to ensure federal policies and regulations are updated for 21st century innovation and care delivery, and that new resources are invested in rural communities to protect access.

On this page, you can find our most up-to-date rural advocacy agenda, our rural report, the latest AHA regulatory advisories, comment letters, fact sheets and more.

FEATURED RESOURCE

2026 AHA Rural Advocacy Agenda

Rural hospitals and health systems are committed to ensuring local, affordable and high-quality care. However, ongoing challenges continue to jeopardize their ability to provide essential services to their communities. These include severe underpayment by Medicare and Medicaid, which threatens the financial stability of the healthcare system; challenges imposed by commercial and Medicare Advantage plans; and a heavy regulatory burden.