Rural Health
Top Stories
Top news stories from the past 60 days. For more, see news by topic or news by state.
Oct 23, 2025 - Highlights a Critical Access Hospital (CAH) in rural Minnesota successfully offering labor and delivery services in spite of nationwide department closures. Describes the challenges with offering this service in rural communities and factors contributing to this CAH's success including participating in a network and cross-training staff. Includes a state map of maternity care deserts at the county level.
Source: MPR News
Oct 22, 2025 - Highlights the rural focus of the new Association of American Cancer Institutes president. Goals include developing a rural focused oversight committee, understanding the connection between ruralness and other social determinants of health, identifying best practices related to decreasing rural morbidity and mortality in cancer, and more.
Source: University of Nebraska Medical Center Newsroom
New Texas Energy Package Could Help Older Adults in Long-Term Care Facilities During Extreme Weather
Oct 20, 2025 - Discusses the challenges with caring for older adults in rural long-term care settings during natural disasters with a close look at the impact of 2021's Winter Storm Uri in Texas. Describes the outsized impact infrastructure failures have on the health of older adults. Highlights the Texas Backup Power Package, legislation aiming to strengthen energy resilience for critical facilities and essential services.
Source: The Daily Yonder
Oct 15, 2025 - Highlights the work of rural health fellows at Augusta University in Georgia. Discusses the benefits to both the rural communities and the fellows themselves. Notes the potential for retaining fellows in rural practice where there are workforce shortages for both primary and specialty care.
Source: Jagwire
Oct 14, 2025 - Describes a trend toward using mobile health clinics in rural and other communities to increase access to healthcare. Discusses how mobile clinics can fill gaps in telehealth services, improve health outcomes, be used for community paramedicine programs, develop the healthcare workforce, and more. Notes the need for better data and more funding to continue research on the impact of mobile clinics.
Source: The Daily Yonder
Oct 9, 2025 - Highlights a new program in rural South Carolina to address malnutrition through protein focused nutrition prescriptions. Participants will have access to food boxes twice a month for 5 months as well as cooking demonstrations.
Source: Clemson News
Oct 6, 2025 - Discusses the benefits and downsides for hospitals considering converting to a Rural Emergency Hospital, highlighting the choices made by rural hospitals around Arkansas. Discusses reimbursement rates, labor and delivery service access, and general healthcare access.
Source: Arkansas Advocate
Oct 6, 2025 - Announces a new rural obstetric and gynecology fellowship in North Carolina. The goal is to increase access to maternal healthcare in areas identified as maternity care deserts.
Source: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill News
Oct 2, 2025 - Highlights the benefits of collaboration between academia and healthcare practitioners as demonstrated by a 10 year partnership between an Indian Health Service (IHS) hospital and the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. Describes how the partnership was established to increase access to naloxone and other prevention work as well as how it has grown to include training, innovative pharmacy-based interventions and services, and international perspectives.
Source: Indian Health Service
Sep 30, 2025 - Highlights rural community resilience hubs in Arizona, North Carolina, Virginia, and Hawaii, discussing their work in preparing for and responding to natural disasters and other emergencies. Discusses regional partnerships, funding, and how the hubs contribute to community connectedness.
Source: The Daily Yonder
Sep 29, 2025 - Describes a long-term research study investigating brain development in children with exposure to opioids and other substances. The study aims to understand potential treatment options for opioid use-disorder. Discusses recruiting rural families including barriers and facilitators to participation.
Source: Cardinal News
Sep 27, 2025 - Describes how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
National Oncology Program expanded access to provide cancer
and cancer survivorship care through most of the 23 Veteran
Integrated Service Network (VISN) regional care systems.
Source: VA News
VA: Veterans Rural Health Advisory Committee, Notice of Meeting
Federal Register
Sep 26, 2025 - The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) will hold a virtual public meeting on October 29, 2025, from 8:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Eastern. Agenda items include updates from VA leadership, the Executive Director of the VA Office of Rural Health, and the Committee Chair, as well as presentations by subject matter experts on general rural healthcare access.
Source: Federal Register
Sep 25, 2025 - Highlights a group of resource-constrained colleges using innovation and collaboration to improve wellness and mental health for their students. Discusses scaling programs designed for larger universities, the strengths and challenges of rural mental health, and collaborating with similar institutions. Notes the early educational successes seen by the program.
Source: The Daily Yonder
Sep 23, 2025 - Announces revisions to the State & Congressional District Profiles Dashboard to include metrics relevant for The Rural Transformation Fund including workforce shortage area designations, opioid overprescribing counties, and Medicaid coverage data. The Dashboard was created in partnership with the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) and National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH).
Source: Stroudwater Associates
Sep 22, 2025 - Highlights best practices in agricultural health and safety during the September harvest season. Discusses safety around equipment, mental health, and for children on farms.
Source: NIOSH Science Blog
Sep 22, 2025 - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has mobilized over 70 Public Health Service Officers to Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities across the country in a move to address staffing shortages.
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Sep 19, 2025 - Announces a new network of rural hospitals in Wisconsin, allowing the participating hospitals to control costs and collaborate to improve patient care. Notes recent closures of rural hospitals in the state, mirroring a national trend.
Source: Chief Healthcare Executive
Sep 15, 2025 - Announces information for states to apply for funding under the Rural Health Transformation Program. Funded projects should address one or more of the stated goals related to healthcare access, rural health innovation, workforce development, and technology. The deadline to apply is November 5, 2025.
Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Newsroom
Related funding:
Rural Health Transformation Program
Sep 12, 2025 - Describes a partnership between the American Heart Association and a rural Arkansas library system to offer blood pressure monitoring kits available for check out. Discusses differences in heart disease prevalence for rural and urban residents.
Source: American Heart Association Newsroom
Sep 10, 2025 - Summarizes recent research findings that rural residents are more likely to experience poor outcomes compared to urban residents following surgery for colon cancer. Greater access to minimally invasive surgery (MIS) for rural patients is identified as a solution for improving surgery outcomes. Discusses challenges with expanding access to MIS.
Source: Bioengineer.org
Sep 9, 2025 - Highlights the work of the North Carolina Psychiatry Access Line (NC-PAL), a free phone line allowing medical providers to consult with behavioral health specialists about their patients. Discusses ways in which they are reaching rural communities to increase access to mental health services.
Source: North Carolina Health News
Sep 9, 2025 - Profiles the Rough Rider Network, a collaborative effort of 22 independent rural healthcare facilities known as a Clinically Integrated Network (CIN). Located in North Dakota, these facilities are working together to save money and improve care across all facilities.
Source: KFF Health News
Sep 5, 2025 - Documents the transition of Harper County Hospital, located in Buffalo, Oklahoma, to becoming a Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) in 2023, with guidance from the REH Technical Assistance Center.
Source: National Rural Health Association
Sep 5, 2025 - Blog post discussing the Rural Health Transformation Program. Provides an overview of the program and examples of early actions taken by governors. Identifies key stakeholder partners and critical policy areas related to rural health.
Source: National Governors Association
Sep 4, 2025 - Highlights a pilot program in Virginia to authorize Special Conservators of the Peace to respond to mental health issues. Discusses the trend away from using law enforcement as first responders for these calls, noting that departments in rural communities often do not have the resources to respond to these calls.
Source: Virginia Mercury
Sep 2, 2025 - Announces changes to the Achieving Healthcare Efficiency through Accountable Design (AHEAD) Model beginning in January 2026 including the end date for all cohorts, payment reforms for patients with Original Medicare, and new requirements around total cost of care and primary care investment targets.
Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Sep 2, 2025 - Highlights an initiative in New Mexico providing rural veterans with home visiting services both following emergency department (ED) visits and proactively to prevent ED visits.
Source: VA News
Sep 2, 2025 - Highlights an initiative in South Dakota for virtual nursing services. The program increases access to healthcare services in rural communities and addresses shortages in the registered nurse workforce. Discusses patient satisfaction and rural facility budgets.
Source: Rural Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture
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