Rural Health News

Health leaders from across the U.S.

The AHA and Black Coalition against COVID April 21 at 7 p.m. ET will host a town hall on enhancing the opportunities for rural health care providers, public health organizations and rural health advocates as they advance COVID-19 prevention guidance, vaccine acceptance and vaccine administration. 

In this case study, AHA’s Future of Rural Health Care Task Force explores how rural hospitals can establish themselves as conveners in their communities, working alongside other stakeholders to improve health outcomes.

The Community Health Access and Rural Transformation Model will not seek applications from accountable care organizations until next spring, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced.

The AHA voiced support for the Rural America Health Corps Act (S.924), legislation that would establish a Rural America Health Corps modeled on the National Health Service Corps to encourage health care professionals to serve in rural areas. 

Reps. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., and Terri Sewell, D-Ala., introduced the Rural Hospital Support Act, AHA-supported legislation that would make permanent the Medicare-Dependent Hospital program and enhanced low-volume Medicare adjustment for small rural prospective payment system hospitals. 

AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack Feb. 17 kicked off the virtual AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference by welcoming more than 900 rural hospital and health system leaders and trustees.

AHA Board Chair Rod Hochman, M.D., Feb. 17 presented the AHA Rural Hospital Leadership Team Award to Southwestern Vermont Medical Center for its outstanding leadership and responsiveness to its community’s health needs.

Attendees of the 2021 AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference heard from keynote speaker Mark Shrime, M.D., O'Brien Chair of Global Surgery at Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin and lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and James Orlikoff, president of Orlikoff and Associates, Inc., who shared his insights on implications of the pandemic for the future of rural health care.

Four health care leaders in rural Montana discuss how their organizations are adjusting their internal operations to accommodate COVID-19 patients; rallying their communities together and building new relationships; and rebuilding on the path forward.

This year’s AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference offers a unique opportunity for leaders to connect before, during and after the conference in affinity groups.

Over 100 rural hospitals have closed since 2013, resulting in patients traveling a median 20 miles farther for health care services, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office.

U.S. hospitals and other non-profit and for-profit entities with experience using telehealth technologies to serve rural underserved populations can apply through April 2 for up to $350,000 each to implement and evaluate direct-to-consumer telehealth technologies to increase access to health care services, the Health Resources and Services Administration announced.

The AHA announced Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, Vt., as the 2020 recipient of the Rural Hospital Leadership Award.

The AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Virtual Conference and Engagement Experience — one of AHA's flagship events — will be held Feb. 17-18.

The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy finalized its proposal to add additional counties to the list of geographic areas considered rural and therefore eligible for rural health grants.

Siri Nelson, CEO of Marshall Medical Center in Placerville, Calif., will serve as 2021 chair of the AHA Rural Health Services Council. Philip Pandolph, president and CEO of Meadville Medical Center in Meadville, Pa., is chair-elect. The AHA Board liaison is Joanne Conroy, M.D., president and CEO of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center One in Lebanon, N.H.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality announced two winners of its $50,000 cross-sectional innovation prize to improve rural postpartum mental health: St. Peter's Health in Helena, Mont., for its maternal mental health program that identifies at-risk individuals and connects women to resources and appropriate care early in pregnancy; and Pack Health in Birmingham, Ala., for its digital health coaching program to address postpartum depression.

Hospital outpatient departments, critical access hospitals, rural health clinics and other eligible providers may apply through Jan. 3 to participate in the Value in Opioid Use Disorder Treatment demonstration.

On this National Rural Health Day, Michelle Hood, AHA execu