Rural Spotlight

MHA Health Institute: 2026 Pain Management Series Registration: Advancing Substance Use Care in Clinical Practice, Starts June 10

June 4, 2026

MHA Health Institute: 2026 Pain Management Series Registration: Advancing Substance Use Care in Clinical Practice, Starts June 10

Join MHA for a four-part informational series focused on improving clinical practice related to opioid prescribing, pain management, stimulant use disorder and alcohol reduction.

Each session offers practical, evidence-informed strategies that can be applied across health care community settings.

Objectives

Upon completion of this program, participants will be able to:

  • Gain a deeper understanding of the CDC prescribing guidelines,
  • Engage patients in effective pain-related conversations,
  • Learn about overamping and how to medically respond to stimulant use disorder, and
  • Improve comfort with difficult conversations around alcohol use.

Cost: Complimentary for all attendees

When:

  • Wednesday, June 10, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
  • Wednesday, June 17, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
  • Wednesday, June 24, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
  • Wednesday, July 1, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grants

June 4, 2026

FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grants

The AFG Program provides financial assistance directly to eligible fire departments, nonaffiliated emergency medical service (EMS) organizations, and State Fire Training Academies (SFTAs) to equip and train emergency personnel to recognized standards, outfit responders with compliant personal protective equipment, provide funding to retrofit or modify facilities to protect personnel from known health hazards, acquire emergency response vehicles, design and implement health, wellness and resiliency programs that prepare responders for incident response, enhance operational efficiencies, foster interoperability, and support community resilience.

Click Here to Learn More

USDA Rural Business Development Grants – June 15 and June 30

June 4, 2026

USDA Rural Business Development Grants – June 15 and June 30

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) supports targeted technical assistance, training, and other activities leading to the development or expansion of small and emerging private businesses in rural areas.

The June 15 closing date only applies to Strategic Economic and Community Development applications; the June 30 date applies to the remainder of the applications.

Click Here to Learn More

Webinar Recording: Sustaining Rural Labor & Delivery Programs

June 4, 2026

Webinar Recording: Sustaining Rural Labor & Delivery Programs

Rural hospitals face ongoing financial and operational pressures that have contributed to the closure of many Labor & Delivery programs nationwide.

This webinar, hosted by researchers at the Flex Monitoring Team (FMT) for rural Medicare hospitals and presented by Stroudwater, highlights practical strategies to help rural hospitals assess and strengthen the financial sustainability of these services.

FORHP funded the development of the Sustaining Rural Labor & Delivery Programs brief; this webinar highlights key insights from the brief and covers approaches to improving how costs are tracked and reported, understanding the financial performance of Labor & Delivery services, and identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and partnerships. Viewers will gain actionable insights to support informed decision-making and help maintain access to essential maternity care in rural communities.

Click Here to View Recording

Click Here to Read Sustaining Rural Labor & Delivery Programs Brief

Save the Date for The Rural Impact, Monday, June 22

June 4, 2026

Save the Date for The Rural Impact, Monday, June 22

The National Association of Community Health Centers will hold an online panel discussion with leaders from rural hospitals and health centers from three states – New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania – discussing their collaborations for rural health.

Hear from panelists as they discuss their priorities for Rural Health Transformation funding as well as how they face shared challenges such as workforce, community engagement, and care models that close access gaps.

Cost: Free

When: Monday, June 22, 2:00 p.m. ET

Click Here to Register

New Data Resource: County-Level Hospital Based Obstetric Care Status from 2010-2024

June 4, 2026

New Data Resource: County-Level Hospital Based Obstetric Care Status from 2010-2024

The University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center developed a publicly available data resource that tracks hospital-based obstetric care availability across U.S. counties from 2010-2024.

The project was designed to create and annually update a national database identifying county-level obstetric service availability and obstetric unit closures to support analysis of trends in rural maternity care access over time.

As of 2023, 60 percent of rural counties lacked hospital-based services according to a recent University of Minnesota research brief. The dataset includes county FIPS codes, state identifiers, and annual indicators showing whether each U.S. county had hospital-based obstetric care during each year from 2010 through 2024 and is available for download in SLS format to support research, policy analysis, and program planning related to rural maternal health and healthcare access.

Click Here to Access Research Publication

Telehealth and Workforce Planning in Rural Health Transformation

June 4, 2026

Telehealth and Workforce Planning in Rural Health Transformation

Experts from the National Technology Center – Telehealth Technology Assessment Resource Center reviewed all 50 state plans for the Rural Health Transformation Program with a close look at technology-enabled care in rural settings.

A recording of that presentation, along with the transcript and slides are provided here by the HRSA-funded national Consortium of Telehealth Resource Center.

Click Here to View Presentation

Whitepaper: What Provider Data Errors are Costing Health Systems and Payers

June 4, 2026

Whitepaper: What Provider Data Errors are Costing Health Systems and Payers

Provider data errors contribute to billions in annual denied-claim waste. Physicians and staff spend up to 13 hours per week navigating prior authorizations and denials, with a meaningful share tied to data errors. And 90% of patients say accurate provider listings are essential to establishing trust.

The problem runs deeper than bad records. Most organizations operate with fragmented provider data spread across EHRs, credentialing systems, payer rosters and marketing platforms – each maintaining a different version of the truth.

This whitepaper shows healthcare leaders how to move past fragmented systems and start treating provider data as a foundation for growth. Real-world case studies and a practical seven step roadmap illustrate what it takes to establish a single, continuously updated source of truth and activate it across every workflow that depends on it.

Key learnings:

  • Where provider data fragmentation creates the most financial and operational exposure,
  • Why point solutions and general-purpose master data management tools leave systemic gaps in place,
  • How unified provider data supports patient access, referral management and No Surprises Act compliance, and
  • Steps to build an enterprise provider data strategy without a large-scale transformation.

Click Here to Download this Whitepaper

On-Demand Webinar: The Hidden Barrier to AI: Why Legacy Systems and App Sprawl are Slowing Healthcare Innovation

June 4, 2026

On-Demand Webinar: The Hidden Barrier to AI: Why Legacy Systems and App Sprawl are Slowing Healthcare Innovation

Healthcare organizations are investing heavily in AI and digital innovation – yet many are discovering that legacy systems, redundant applications and fragmented infrastructure are slowing progress. Before scaling AI or advanced analytics, many healthcare IT, digital and compliance leaders are realizing they must address decades of accumulated technical debt.

This session will explore how healthcare IT leaders are approaching application rationalization and legacy modernization as strategic enablers of AI, cloud transformation and operational efficiency. Speakers will share practical approaches for evaluating legacy systems, reducing application sprawl and aligning platforms to support the next generation of healthcare technologies.

Key learning points

  • Why legacy systems and application sprawl are emerging as major barriers to AI and digital transformation,
  • Practical frameworks for evaluating and rationalizing healthcare application portfolios,
  • How leading health systems are balancing modernization with operational stability,
  • Strategies for aligning infrastructure, security and governance when retiring legacy systems, and
  • Where CIOs should start when building a modern digital foundation for AI.

Click Here to Download this On-Demand Webinar

Webinar: The Power of Combining Smart Technicians with Intelligent AI in HTM Operations, June 23

June 4, 2026

Webinar: The Power of Combining Smart Technicians with Intelligent AI in HTM Operations, June 23

Healthcare organizations are under increasing pressure to improve operational efficiency while supporting overextended clinical engineering teams. In this webinar, leaders will explore how agentic AI can help biomedical technicians streamline workflows, reduce administrative burden, and access faster troubleshooting and equipment insights. Attendees will learn how AI is being integrated into clinical engineering operations and what it could mean for the future of healthcare technology management.

Learning Points:

  • Explore how agentic AI can support biomedical technician workflows,
  • Understand emerging use cases for AI in troubleshooting, knowledge retrieval, and maintenance support,
  • Learn key considerations for AI adoption, workflow integration, and technician trust, and
  • Examine how AI can augment, not replace, clinical engineering expertise.

Cost: Free

When: Tuesday, June 23, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register