Rural Spotlight

Whitepaper – The hidden cost of confusion: Using AI to Make Healthcare Bills Make Sense

July 16, 2025

Whitepaper – The hidden cost of confusion: Using AI to Make Healthcare Bills Make Sense

As the cost of care increases, paying for it becomes more complicated – with many patients finding medical bills more confusing and stressful than the treatment itself.

This whitepaper, presented at Becker’s Hospital Review 15th Annual Meeting, dives into how health systems are leveraging AI to ease the burden of paying for care. From guiding patients through their bills to surfacing relevant benefits and resources, AI tools are creating personalized affordability pathways.

Revenue cycle experts reveal how leading health systems are using this model to reduce costs, drive collections and reduce staff burnout.

You’ll Learn:

  • How one AI voice agent connects patients to personalized payment options before bad debt accrues,
  • What’s working to drive up digital payments and reduce support requests, and
  • The financial lift: 20% increase in collections + higher patient satisfaction

Click Here to Access Whitepaper

How OSF HealthCare is Rethinking Onboarding to Improve Retention

July 16, 2025

How OSF HealthCare is Rethinking Onboarding to Improve Retention

Burnout, turnover, disengagement – health systems are losing staff before they’ve had a chance to thrive. At OSF HealthCare, leaders realized that traditional onboarding models weren’t enough. So they reimagined the experience.

In this exclusive session, OSF’s HR team will share how they’ve operationalized a “hire to retire” strategy using a unified digital platform to create a seamless onboarding journey – one that boosts engagement from day one and supports long-term workforce retention.

You’ll hear how OSF is connecting the dots between onboarding, operations and employee satisfaction, and what other systems can learn from their approach.

Key Takeaways:

  • How OSF HealthCare is streamlining onboarding to reduce friction and accelerate employee readiness,
  • Why personalization matters, and how to scale it without increasing HR burden, and
  • The building blocks of a systemwide workforce engagement strategy that sticks.

Cost: Free

When: On-demand, watch at your convenience

Click Here to Access Webinar

Patient Communication Shouldn’t Break Your System – It should Strengthen It, On-Demand Webinar

July 16, 2025

Patient Communication Shouldn’t Break Your System – It should Strengthen It, On-Demand Webinar         

Most health systems still rely on outdated communication workflows that frustrate patients and overextend staff. Calls go unanswered, wait times grow and teams can’t keep up.

These breakdowns are more than operational. They directly impact access, satisfaction and care continuity. And patients start looking elsewhere for answers.

Join an industry expert to explore how AI-powered tools are helping health systems automate routine inquiries, streamline call routing and enable 24/7 responsiveness without hiring more staff.

Takeaways include:

  • How AI-powered systems manage common patient questions,
  • Real-world examples of automated routing that improves patient access and reduces staff workload, and
  • Why health systems are investing in “always-on” communication.

Cost: Free

When: On-Demand, watch at your convenience

Click Here to Access On-Demand Webinar

AI’s Next Healthcare Disruption: Transforming the Patient Experience

July 16, 2025

AI’s Next Healthcare Disruption: Transforming the Patient Experience

The next wave of AI is redefining the patient journey, making it digital, dynamic and data driven.

Healthcare leaders face the challenge of interpreting vast amounts of patient data to improve care outcomes. Current methods often fail to capture the full picture, leaving gaps in understanding patient sentiment.

This report explores how leveraging AI alongside traditional measures like HCAHPS can lead to significant improvements in patient experience. Discover how AI helps in uncovering hidden friction and strengthening marketing strategies.

Key takeaways:

  • How AI is reshaping patient experiences beyond clinical settings,
  • The advantages of complementing HCAHPS data with real-time AI insights, and
  • Preparation strategies for an 1aI-driven future in healthcare

Click Here to Access Report

CMS Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model – Apply by July

July 15, 2025

CMS Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model – Apply by July

Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the new Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model. CMS will partner with companies specializing in enhanced technologies to test ways to provide an improved and expedited prior authorization process relative to Original Medicare’s existing processes.

The WISeR Model will test a new process on whether enhanced technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), can expedite the prior authorization processes for select items and services that have been identified as particularly vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse, or inappropriate use.

Companies selected to participate in the model must have clinicians with appropriate expertise to conduct medical reviews and validate coverage determinations. CMS has issued a Request for Applications for companies interested in participating in the WISeR Model.

Additional information is available in the Model Overview Fact Sheet and on the Federal Register.

Click here to Learn More

Click Here to see Request for Applications

Click Here to view Model Overview Fact Sheet

Click Here to go to Federal Register

The Impact of High Hospital Fixed-Cost Ratios on Rural Populations

July 15, 2025

The Impact of High Hospital Fixed-Cost Ratios on Rural Populations

This brief from the RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis describes the regional variation in Critical Access Hospital (CAH) and Low-Volume Hospital (LVH) status with respect to average fixed-to-total-cost ratios, finding that CAHs tend to have the highest ratios, followed by LVHs. However, the average ratio for each status differs regionally across the United States.

Click Here to Read More

Access and Quality of Mental Health Services in Rural and Urban America

July 15, 2025

Access and Quality of Mental Health Services in Rural and Urban America

Among the key findings in this brief from the University of South Carolina Rural Health Research Center:

  • Digital Divide Exacerbating Access: Both rural and urban Zip Code Tabulation Areas located more than 30 minutes away from the nearest mental health facility have a higher proportion of households without access to essential telecommunication devices.
  • Quality of Rural Mental Health Facilities: Rural facilities generally demonstrate better performance compared to urban facilities in terms of continuity of care measures and lower rates of physical restraint and seclusion usage.

Click Here to Read More

Geographic and Demographic Correlates of Living in Manufactured Homes: Implications for Health

July 15, 2025

Geographic and Demographic Correlates of Living in Manufactured Homes: Implications for Health

Manufactured homes (formerly known as mobile homes) can provide an affordable housing option, especially in places with few other options. However, manufactured homes are associated with poorer health outcomes and are less well equipped to protect their residents from the effects of natural disasters than more permanent housing structures.

This brief from the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center examines rates of living in manufactured homes by rural and urban location, as well as rates among rural residents by region and socio-demographic characteristics. It also examines differences in crowded housing, housing quality, and housing cost burden by manufactured vs. more permanent housing structures.

Click Here to Read Brief

Apply for HRSA’s Faculty Loan Repayment Program, Deadline Extended to July 22

July 15, 2025

Apply for HRSA’s Faculty Loan Repayment Program, Deadline Extended to July 22

The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) Bureau of Health Workforce will repay a portion of your health professional student loan in return for serving on the faculty at a health professions school.

Successful applicants will receive up to $40,000 in loan repayment assistance as well as funding to offset the tax burden.

Click Here to Learn More and Apply

Obstetric Care Access Declined in Rural and Urban Hospitals Across US States, 2010-2022

July 15, 2025

Obstetric Care Access Declined in Rural and Urban Hospitals Across US States, 2010-2022

With support from the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, a team of researchers from the University of Minnesota, Harvard University, and the University of Pennsylvania found widespread loss of obstetric services across states, especially among rural hospitals, during the 12-year period studied.

By 2022, eight states had more than two-thirds of rural hospitals without obstetric services.

Click Here to Read Full Report