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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Hospitals

The Rural Hospital Cybersecurity Landscape
Explores the current state of rural hospitals, the unique cybersecurity threats they face, and the impact of cyberattacks on rural hospitals. Discusses how technology companies can help address immediate cybersecurity risks and broader systemic challenges facing rural hospitals. Provides an overview of Microsoft's Cybersecurity for Rural Hospitals Program, including case studies and lessons learned from the program's first year.
Author(s): Erin Burchfield, Rachel Clark, Laura Kreofsky
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Microsoft
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5 Key Facts About Medicaid and Hospitals
Provides an overview of the impact of Medicaid spending for hospitals. Discusses potential challenges facing rural hospitals if policy changes to reduce Medicaid spending are implemented. Includes data on the percentage of births financed by Medicaid overall and by urban and rural status.
Author(s): Scott Hulver, Zachary Levinson, Alice Burns, et al.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: KFF
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A Picture of the Loss of Rural Obstetrical Service in Alabama 1980 to 2025
County-level maps showing counties with hospitals offering obstetrical service in 1980 and those offering service as of March 2025.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Alabama Office of Primary Care and Rural Health
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Wyoming Medicaid Annual Report SFY 2024
Comprehensive report of Wyoming's Medicaid program, including information and data for the types of services provided, enrollment, cost of services, and service utilization by Rural Health Clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Wyoming Department of Health
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MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy, 2025
Annual review of Medicare payment policies, with recommendations to Congress. Includes discussion on Medicare payment policies directly affecting rural providers and beneficiaries. Addresses payment adequacy for Medicare fee-for-service payment systems, Medicare Advantage (MA), and Medicare Part D.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy: Skilled Nursing Facility Services: Chapter 6
Discusses payment adequacy for skilled nursing facility (SNF) services. Features statistics on SNF care provided by rural hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) via swing beds and Medicare margins for urban, rural, and frontier freestanding SNFs in 2023.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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March 2025 MedPAC Meeting Transcript
Transcript from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's (MedPAC) March 2025 meeting. Covers research and proposals related to reforming physician fee schedule updates and improving the accuracy of relative payment rates, reducing beneficiary cost-sharing for outpatient services at Critical Access Hospitals, Medicare insurance agents, Medigap, payment for ground ambulance services, home healthcare use among Medicare Advantage enrollees, and institutional special needs plans. Includes rural references and considerations throughout.
Additional links: Mandated Report: Payment for Ground Ambulance Services, Reducing Beneficiary Cost-Sharing for Outpatient Services at Critical Access Hospitals
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Quality Improvement Workbook
Outlines seven steps of the quality improvement process. Offers interactive worksheets to help Critical Access Hospitals develop and support quality improvement goals and projects.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Rural Quality Improvement Technical Assistance (RQITA) Resource Center
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Rural Hospital Experiences in the Colorado Hospital Transformation Program
Provides an overview of the Colorado Hospital Transformation Program (CO HTP), a 5-year program that ties Medicaid supplemental payments to hospitals' ability to meet performance targets through September 2026. Describes the experiences of three Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and explores how CO HTP impacts rural hospitals. Covers planning and community engagement, quality of care, and healthcare costs.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Value
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Health Outside Hospital Walls
Outlines how Chadron Community Hospital and Health Services (CCHHS) in Chadron, Nebraska, is leveraging the changing healthcare environment to prioritize population health and fill needed service gaps within the community. As part of the focus on overall community health, CCHHS took leadership in an assisted living facility, funded a large scholarship fund to help cultivate a skilled local workforce, and assumed management of the community action agency.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Value
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