Rural Spotlight

Webinar: Why Inpatient Coding Quality is Now a Governance Issue, March 31

March 26, 2026

Webinar: Why Inpatient Coding Quality is Now a Governance Issue, March 31

Ninety-five percent. Ninety-seven percent. Ninety-eight percent. Accuracy rates look strong on paper. But are they enough?

In today’s environment, payers are using advanced analytics to flag documentation inconsistencies at scale. Clinical validation denials are rising. Audit scrutiny is intensifying. At the same time, staffing instability is straining traditional oversight models.

Accuracy alone cannot answer the questions executives are now asking: Are we truly capturing patient acuity? Are our diagnoses clinically defensible under payer review? Are we measuring what matters – or just what is easy to measure?

In 2026, inpatient coding quality is no longer just an operational benchmark. It is a governance issue directly tied to financial transparency, compliance exposure and executive accountability.

Join this candid discussion on how hospital leaders are redefining coding oversight beyond accuracy percentages.

You’ll explore:

  • Why traditional accuracy rates can mask documentation gaps,
  • The difference between technically correct coding and clinically defensible coding,
  • How CC and MCC capture trends influence acuity representation and reimbursement integrity, and
  • Where CDI and coding alignment breaks down – and how to close the gap.

Cost: Free

When: Tuesday, March 31, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Webinar: Inside the Referral Gaps Costing Health Systems Patients and Growth, March 31

March 26, 2026

Webinar: Inside the Referral Gaps Costing Health Systems Patients and Growth, March 31

Demand for specialty care is growing rapidly, while physician shortages continue to strain access. Yet many health systems still manage referrals using a first-in, first-out (FIFO) approach, placing urgent and routine patients in the same queue. When patients stall, access suffers, and revenue walks out the door.

Leaders from MUSC Physicians, Novant Health and Jefferson Health will break down how they are strengthening patient flow with intelligent triage across complex.

This session explores:

  • Where breakdowns most commonly occur – and how to pinpoint them with data,
  • How to standardize patient routing and triage across service lines, and
  • Operational changes that increase scheduled visit conversion.

Cost: Free

When: Tuesday, March 31, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Hospital Price Transparency: Enforcement of 2026 Requirements Starts April 1

March 26, 2026

Hospital Price Transparency: Enforcement of 2026 Requirements Starts April 1

In the Calendar Year 2026 Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) Final Rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) added new Hospital Price Transparency requirements and will begin enforcement on April 1.

Hospitals must update the machine-readable file posted on their website to include new allowed amount data elements (median, 10th percentile, 90th percentile, and count), their organizational National Provider Identifier (NPI), and an attestation from a senior official confirming the information is accurate and complete.

Hospitals that do not comply may receive warning notices, be required to submit corrective action plans, or face civil monetary penalties that may be publicly reported. CMS maintains tools and resources to help hospitals in meet machine-readable file requirements.

Click Here to See Hospital Price Transparency Requirements

Click Here to Explore CMS Tools and Resources

HUD Research on Rural Housing

March 26, 2026

HUD Research on Rural Housing

The Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) is a division within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that conducts research, data analysis, and program evaluations to inform housing policy.

This report examines housing challenges that are unique to rural communities, such as affordability, the physical inadequacy of homes, homelessness, difficulty in aging in place, and disaster response and recovery.

The report also describes federal, state, local, and private policy efforts to address these challenges, with details on three rural housing initiatives states have implemented to spur development and boost home ownership.

Click Here to Read Report

Rural Emergency Hospital: Progress, Resources, and Real-World Lessons

March 26, 2026

Rural Emergency Hospital: Progress, Resources, and Real-World Lessons

The Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) designation, created by Congress in 2020, is intended to preserve access to emergency and outpatient care in rural communities that may not be able to sustain a full hospital. Since the designation took effect in January 2023, 44 hospitals across the country are now operating as REHs. The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) funds a number of resources to support hospitals considering this transition including:

Webinar: Precision Medicine as Strategy: St. Luke’s Enterprise Approach, Marcy 27

March 26, 2026

Webinar: Precision Medicine as Strategy: St. Luke’s Enterprise Approach, Marcy 27

Health systems cannot afford fragmented specialty care or missed downstream opportunity.

Three years ago, St. Luke’s University Health Network made a deliberate decision to invest in precision medicine as a core enterprise priority. Through its DNA Answers program, the health system aligned clinical innovation with market strategy.

In this session, St. Luke’s leaders share how they moved from vision to execution and why timing, partnership structure and executive alignment made the difference.

Insights include:

  • The business case that elevated precision medicine to a board-level priority,
  • How St. Luke’s structured its partnership to move faster and avoid adoption barriers, and
  • The cultural shift sparked by patient stories and executive sponsorship.

Cost: Free

When: Friday, March 27, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Webinar: Scaling AI with Confidence: Turning Early Use Cases Into Enterprise Value, March 26

March 24, 2026

Webinar: Scaling AI with Confidence: Turning Early Use Cases Into Enterprise Value, March 26

Healthcare leaders face daily tension: contact centers are overwhelmed, patient communication is fragmented, and staff workflows remain manual.

Add a crowded, fast-moving AI ecosystem, and the risk of missteps increases. Many health systems recognize AI’s promise but struggle to translate it into sustained operational and financial impact.

In this webinar, leaders from 42 North Dental and Unio Health Partners share what worked, what did not, and what they would approach differently if given a chance.

You’ll learn how organizations have:

  • Identified high-impact operational use cases for early AI winds,
  • Improved first-call resolution and reduced contact center strain, and
  • Established a scalable roadmap to deploy AI across the enterprise.

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, March 26, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Webinar: Beyond Cost Centers: Finding Margin Opportunity Through Encounter Level Variation, March 25

March 24, 2026

Webinar: Beyond Cost Centers: Finding Margin Opportunity Through Encounter Level Variation, March 25

Hospital margins remain under pressure, yet most organizations still rely on cost center reporting to understand profitability.

The problem is that cost centers rarely reveal where margin is truly gained or lost. Variation often occurs across providers, sites of care, and individual patient encounters – but traditional financial reporting makes it difficult to see.

In this session, we’ll discuss how external Cost & Margin benchmarks for healthcare organizations across the country connect financial, operational, and reimbursement data to reveal profitability at the encounter level.

With this level of insight, finance teams can uncover variation, identify margin opportunity, and better support strategic and operational decisions.

Insights include:

  • Why cost center reporting often hides meaningful margin variation,
  • How encounter-level cost and reimbursement data reveal true profitability drivers,
  • Where organizations are uncovering margin opportunities across providers and sites of care, and
  • How finance leaders are using these insights to support smarter operational and strategic decisions.

Cost: Free

When: Wednesday, March 25, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

MHA Conference: 2026 Leadership Forum, June 18-19

March 23, 2026

MHA Conference: 2026 Leadership Forum, June 18-19

Today’s health care environment is rapidly changing, and strong, aligned leadership has never been more essential. Missouri hospital executives, trustees and clinical leaders are navigating significant challenges — improving care while reducing costs, addressing workforce shortages and integrating new technologies in a sustainable, strategic way.

Meeting these challenges requires leaders who can guide their teams with clarity, resilience and optimism. Creating intentional space for leadership development and alignment is more important than ever.

MHA’s Leadership Forum brings together executive and clinical leaders alongside trustees and leadership teams to step back from day-to-day pressures, reconnect on shared priorities and chart a unified path forward. This forum — featuring nationally recognized leadership experts who deeply understand the realities of today’s health care landscape — is designed to help you think about your organization in new and sustainable ways.

The forum offers a valuable opportunity to align your board and leadership team, spark new ideas, and take-home actionable strategies to advance patient care and organizational performance.

You are invited to bring your trustees, executive team and clinical leaders to this event. You’ll leave inspired, connected and better equipped — not just as individual leaders, but as a cohesive team ready to shape the future of health care in Missouri.

This event is limited to MHA members only.

Cost: this event is coupon eligible

  • Early Bird Rate (register by April 17): $450
  • After April 17: $495

Click Here to Learn More and Register

Whitepaper: Quiet at Night: A New Path to Calmer, More Restful Hospital Nights

March 23, 2026

Whitepaper: Quiet at Night: A New Path to Calmer, More Restful Hospital Nights

How addressing unnecessary device alarms and managing them away from the bedside can help patient health and nurses focus.

Hospital noise levels have skyrocketed since the 1960s, turning patient rooms – especially at night – into spaces of fragmented sleep and stress. Much of the noise comes from medical device alarms that were designed to support safety but can interrupt patient recovery and overwhelm clinicians.

This paper explores how hospital leaders can restore rest and focus by tackling noise abd alarm fatigue at their source – combining workflow, culture and technology to address unnecessary alerts and route meaningful ones to the right clinicians.

Inside, you’ll learn:

  • What has caused hospitals to become so noisy – and what to do about it, including adjusting workflows and making environmental updates,
  • Practical ways to manage alarm load through smarter configurations,
  • How the new SDC interoperability standard for medical devices enables alarm receipt and response away from the bedside, and
  • Lessons from Cincinnati Children’s, which successfully silenced in-room monitors on med-surg units, and insights on ICU alarm culture from Grady Health System.

Click Here to Download Whitepaper