Month: August 2025

Wanted: Rural Health Champions

August 25, 2025

 

Wanted: Rural Health Champions

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Office of Rural Health and Primary Care is seeking nominations for 2025 Missouri Rural Health Champions. This award is designed to honor a minimum of one individual and one group whose contributions are making a difference in Missouri rural healthcare through collaboration, education, innovation, and communication.

Who Might be a Rural Health Champion:

  • Providers
  • Clinic managers and/or staff
  • Rural Hospitals
  • Pharmacists
  • Therapists
  • Nurses
  • Front desk staff
  • Administrators
  • Anyone who works in rural healthcare

Nomination deadline is October 1, 2025.

Click Here to Nominate Your Rural Health Champion

Whitepaper: Care More, Code Less – How to Navigate CMS Updates

August 25, 2025

Whitepaper: Care More, Code Less – How to Navigate CMS Updates

Recent CMS changes removed over 2,000 diagnostic codes and introduced 200-plus that don’t map to reimbursement under previous rules. For health systems and ACOs, missing these changes can translate into massive revenue losses and poor risk scoring.

Health systems like Community Health Network have responded decisively. By embedding hierarchical condition category (HCC) alerts into its EHR workflows, the organization added more than $13 million to their bottom line. Bellin Health raised its risk adjustment factor (RAF) score by 16%. Bon Secours Mercy Health documented over 35,000 HCCs in just six months.

This report details how systems are operationalizing HCC accuracy amid shifting CMS rules – with proven returns.

Download for real-world lessons on:

  • Avoiding missed reimbursement under CMS’ new coding structure,
  • Embedding EHR-based HCC alerts to boost risk scores, and
  • Discover how health systems boost risk adjustment and reimbursement with streamlined HCC coding.

Click Here to Download Whitepaper

Webinar: Responsible AI in Primary Care: Driving Quality, Trust and Transformation, August 26

August 25, 2025

Webinar: Responsible AI in Primary Care: Driving Quality, Trust and Transformation, August 26

AI is transforming primary care – but success hinges on how it’s deployed. Health systems leading the way on AI adoption aren’t just investing in smarter algorithms; they’re embedding AI into clinical workflows while preserving trust, safety and the patient-clinician relationship.

In this panel, hear from leaders on what responsible AI looks like in action and what it takes to get clinicians on board. This will be a practical conversation grounded in real-world cases, governance strategies and measurable results.

Join to Explore:

  • How systems are reducing clinician burden and surfacing key insights at the point of care,
  • Strategies to embed AI into workflows without disrupting the human connection, and
  • Governance approaches that ensure responsible, scalable AI deployment across primary care.

Cost: Free

When: Tuesday, August 26, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

The Next Major Workforce Crisis Systems are Tackling

August 25, 2025

The Next Major Workforce Crisis Systems are Tackling

Health systems are taking on what one leader has called the “next major workforce crisis”: a shortage of nurse educators.

In 2024, U.S. nursing schools turned away 80,162 qualified applications. Within that total,

  • 65,398 applications from entry-level baccalaureate were turned away,
  • 1,530 from RN-to BSN,
  • 7,603 from master’s,
  • 5,366 from DNP, and
  • 265 from PhD nursing programs.

There’s never been a shortage of qualified applicants,” Carolyn Santora, MSN, RN, chief nursing officer and chief regulatory officer at Stony Brook (N.Y.) University Hospital, told Becker’s. “The bottleneck has been a shortage of faculty, limiting class sizes.

The aging nurse faculty workforce is a key challenge for some of these programs. The average age of nursing faculty in four-year programs is in the 60s, Susan Reeves, EdD, RN, system chief nurse executive at Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth Health, told Becker’s.

“Many will retire soon, and there aren’t enough younger educators ready to replace them,” she said. “Compounding this, new nursing graduates often earn more in practice than faculty with decades of experience. This is shaping up to be our next major workforce crisis.”

To address these issues, health systems are taking up the torch to support education opportunities for nursing students and new nurses. This looks different at every system.

Click Here to Read More

OnDemand Webinar: Automating Authorizations: How Teams are Getting Paid Faster Without Adding Staff

August 25, 2025

OnDemand Webinar: Automating Authorizations: How Teams are Getting Paid Faster Without Adding Staff

Manual prior authorizations slow care, frustrate patients and delay payment. Staff get buried in phone calls, faxes and follow-ups.

Left unresolved, these inefficiencies lead to rising denials, delayed revenue and burned-out teams.

In this OnDemand webinar, see how one organization automated the authorization process – cutting approval times, reducing admin work and getting paid faster.

You’ll Learn How to:

  • Pinpoint which tasks can be automated for the greatest ROI,
  • Reduce payer-related delays that stall revenue cycles, and
  • Free staff to focus on patients, not paperwork.

Cost: Free

Click Here to Access OnDemand Webinar

MRHA Webinar: Total Case Management, September 25

August 25, 2025

MRHA Webinar: Total Case Management, September 25

Join the Missouri Rural Health Association (MRHA) for an engaging session introducing a new model of Case Management designed specifically for rural healthcare. Total Case Management emphasizes intentional patient navigation to ensure patients receive the right care, at the right time, in the right place – while also improving hospital revenue and operational efficiency.

This webinar will guide rural health leaders through strategies to identify barriers in traditional case management, strengthen ER-to-inpatient service utilization, and ultimately repair and transform broken case management models. By adopting the Total Case Management Model, organizations can deliver better care, increase patient satisfaction, reduce insurance denials, and strengthen their bottom line.

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, September 25, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

MRHA Webinar: Drones: Improving Rural Healthcare Access, August 28

August 25, 2025

MRHA Webinar: Drones: Improving Rural Healthcare Access, August 28

Join Valkyrie UAS Solutions for an innovative session exploring how long-range technology is transforming healthcare delivery in rural Missouri and beyond. As the home of the nation’s first rural healthcare drone hub, based in Rolla, Missouri, Valkyrie is pioneering the use of 100-mile range drones to address critical gaps in access to care.

This webinar will highlight how drone technology is:

  • Delivering specialty pharmaceuticals directly to rural patients,
  • Supporting rapid lab analysis through efficient sample transport,
  • Expanding telehealth reach and capabilities,
  • Reducing strain on rural caregivers, and
  • Improving patient outcomes while strengthening rural healthcare finances.

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, August 28, 12:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Save the Date: Rural Health Day Celebration, November 20

August 22, 2025

Save the Date: Rural Health Day Celebration, November 20

National Rural Health Day celebrates the Power of Rural and aims to bring attention to the unique healthcare needs of rural communities.

It’s a day to recognize the individuals and organizations dedicated to addressing these challenges and ensuring access to quality healthcare for the nearly 61 million people living in rural America.

Mark your calendars to save the date for Thursday, November 20, when we will have conversations to bring much-needed attention to the ongoing efforts to communicate, educate, collaborate, and innovate.

More details will be shared as we develop the agenda and secure exciting speakers and presentations.

Webinar: Reducing ED Boarding & Boosting Surgical Growth: Inside Jackson Health’s AI Strategy, August 28

August 22, 2025

Webinar: Reducing ED Boarding & Boosting Surgical Growth: Inside Jackson Health’s AI Strategy, August 28

Medicaid cuts and eroding margins are top of mind for all health system leaders, and operational complexity makes matters worse. Jackson Health System faced similar obstacles – until leaders built a strategic AI framework that goes beyond the EHR.

In this webinar, Jackson Health’s president and COO will share how the team unlocked a .42-day reduction in excess days, a 4.5% increase in primetime OR utilization, and an 18% drop in ED boarding times and $6.7 million in annualized savings.

You’ll Learn How to:

  • Develop an AI strategy to address inpatient capacity and surgical growth,
  • Build alignment for enterprise AI investments that deliver ROI, and
  • Drive adoption of AI assistants across clinical and operational teams.

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, August 28, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Comments Requested on Proposed Changes to the Medicare Hospital Cost Report, Comment by September 15

August 21, 2025

Comments Requested on Proposed Changes to the Medicare Hospital Cost Report, Comment by September 15

In the CY2026 Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) proposed rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) seeks comments on their proposal to require that hospitals include in their Medicare cost reports, beginning January 1, 2026, the median payer-specific charges that they have negotiated with Medicare Advantage organizations, by Medicare Severity-Diagnosis Related Groups.

The rule also requests comments on a proposed methodology hospitals would use to calculate the median payer-specific charge.

Critical Access Hospitals, Rural Emergency Hospitals, and hospitals operated by an Indian Health Program would not report median payer-specific charges on cost reports because these hospitals are not paid using the inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS).

Click Here to Read Proposed Rule and Make Comment

Click the links below to learn more about: