AHA trustees discuss future of rural care at Sanford Rural Health Summit

Members of the AHA Board of Trustees Oct.14 participated in a panel on the future of rural health care during the Sanford Rural Health Summit in Sioux Falls, S.D. Joanne Conroy, M.D., president and CEO of Dartmouth Health and AHA immediate-past chair, explained the need to provide more rural telehealth services. “It’s an enabling function now for all of our procedures (and) for care of our patients in far, distant communities,” Conroy said.

Bill Gassen, president and CEO of Sanford Health and AHA chair-elect designate, discussed the need for hospitals to innovate more for the future. “We have a chance to be a part of how we want to incorporate the use of technology into the way in which we deliver care so that we can advance that care for the patients that we serve,” Gassen said.

Erik Wexler, president and CEO of Providence St. Joseph Health and an AHA trustee, discussed the need for prompt payment legislation that calls for commercial insurers to pay hospitals within the same window they must be paid by Traditional Medicare. “We are fighting for that payment,” Wexler said. “We’re wasting our money, and we are destabilizing the health system in the United States, especially small rural hospitals that don’t have the systems, the people and the intricacy to fight for those dollars.”

AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack and AHA Group Vice President of Policy Molly Smith also participated in the summit. See the Oct. 14 article for more on their sessions.