Rural Spotlight

MHA Webinar: Discharge Planning, April 13

March 30, 2026

MHA Webinar: Discharge Planning, April 13

This session will provide an overview of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ regulations governing the provision of discharge planning in hospitals. The new interpretive guidelines and the applicability of old discharge-planning surveyor worksheets will be discussed.

Objectives:

  • Describe basic requirements for discharge planning conditions of participation,
  • Discuss CMS expectations for safe discharge to post-acute providers, and
  • Discuss the applicability of how to use the surveyor discharge-planning worksheets.

Audience:

  • CEOs,
  • Chief Medical Officers,
  • Chief Nursing Officers,
  • Compliance personnel,
  • Emergency department staff,
  • Legal counsel,
  • Nurses,
  • Physicians,
  • Quality improvement and risk managers, and
  • Safety officers

Cost:

  • MHA members – $225
  • Non members – $325

When: Monday, April 13

To ensure you receive all course materials needed to participate, register before April 10.

Click Here to Register

Webinar: Doing Nothing Isn’t Neutral: The Right Way to Manage Estates in an Aging America, March 30

March 27, 2026

Webinar: Doing Nothing Isn’t Neutral: The Right Way to Manage Estates in an Aging America, March 30

Revenue cycle leaders are investing heavily in hot topics such as AI automation, denial management, and front-end transformation. But while the spotlight stays there, a major financial risk is quietly accelerating, and most organizations aren’t prepared.

An aging population, combined with high end-of-life care costs and rising self-pay balances, is creating a sharp increase in complex, estate-related accounts. By 2050, more than 1 in 5 Americans will be over 65. That shift isn’t theoretical; it’s already impacting recoveries, compliance exposure, and brand reputation.

And in many health systems, estate processes are still fragmented, inconsistent, or reactive.

Doing nothing isn’t neutral. It costs you.

Join leaders from Prisma Health, Mercy Health System, and the Johns Hopkins Health System for a candid, executive-level discussion on what leading organizations are doing differently and what your team must put in place now to protect revenue, reduce risk, and manage estates effectively in an aging America.

You will learn:

  • Compliance and reimbursement risks linked to inconsistent estate processes,
  • How leading systems are integrating estate workflows into broader revenue cycle strategy, and
  • Opportunities to improve financial performance while protecting family experience.

Cost: Free

When: Monday, March 30, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Webinar: Prevention by Design: the Next Era of Intelligent Revenue Cycle Strategy, March 31

March 27, 2026

Webinar: Prevention by Design: the Next Era of Intelligent Revenue Cycle Strategy, March 31

As payer complexity increases and margins narrow, revenue cycle leaders are moving beyond reactive fixes.

Advances in automation, AI and process modernization are driving measurable gains in denials management, coding accuracy and AR follow-up – while enabling earlier intervention across the claims lifecycle.

In this panel discussion, leaders will discuss how AI is advancing beyond task automation to influence how claims are triggered, prioritized and routed. By embedding intelligence upstream, organizations can prevent avoidable denials, reduce aged AR and accelerate cash flow in a demanding payer environment.

Join to Learn:

  • How to shift revenue cycle strategy upstream to prevent revenue leakage,
  • Where AI is delivering the strongest financial and operational impact, and
  • How to align people, process and technology to strengthen margins without adding burden to clinical or front-line teams.

Cost: Free

When: Tuesday, March 31, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Whitepaper: Why Hospital Energy Strategy is Now a C-Suite Priority

March 27, 2026

Whitepaper: Why Hospital Energy Strategy is Now a C-Suite Priority

Health systems are investing heavily in AI, digital care models and patient experience. But many are building on aging energy infrastructure never designed to support always-on digital operations and expanding clinical demands.

Outdated systems do more than increase maintenance costs. They constrain capacity for new technologies, heighten compliance risk and leave hospitals vulnerable to unplanned downtime that can delay procedures, disrupt care delivery and impact revenue.

In a recent survey of 150 healthcare leaders, 57 percent said minimizing downtime is their top energy priority, and 27 percent ranked resilience as their No. 1 strategic pillar.

This report examines how leading health systems are rethinking critical power as a clinical, operational and financial priority, moving beyond redundancy alone and toward digitally enabled resilience that supports uptime, compliance and long-term growth.

Inside, you’ll learn:

  • Why backup redundancy alone no longer guarantees operational resilience,
  • How digital power monitoring supports compliance, visibility and uptime, and
  • What health systems are prioritizing in modern energy and infrastructure roadmaps.

Click Here to Download this Whitepaper

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: