Rural Spotlight

Webinar: Real-time Pay as a Retention Tool: Building Support Alignment and Adoption, March 19

March 16, 2026

Webinar: Real-time Pay as a Retention Tool: Building Support Alignment and Adoption, March 19

More healthcare workers are living paycheck to paycheck than ever before. Real-time pay isn’t just another perk to add to a benefit list. It’s a way to show your team you understand their reality and you’re doing something about it. This session is for leaders who want to explore how giving people access to their earned pay can actually move the needle on retention and recruitment.

This webinar will walk through building support across your organization and creating a rollout that people actually use. Leaders from Naples Comprehensive Health, DailyPay and Lee Health discuss how they evaluate retention investments, align stakeholders across departments and focus on outcomes that matter.

What you’ll takeaway:

  • A real solution to a real problem: Your frontline teams are stressed about money. Real-time pay addresses that directly, which means better retention and engagement.
  • Getting everyone on board: Get HR, finance, payroll, union leadership, and operations aligned early on the non-negotiables: data security, employee costs, payroll integration, communication ownership, and success metrics.
  • Making it stick: The launch is just the beginning. Drive adoption through trusted channels (town halls, managers) with messaging about control, flexibility, and peace of mind.
  • The right partner makes all the difference: Work with a vendor who stays engaged post-launch to drive enrollment and sustain results.

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, March 19, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Webinar: Making the Case for Virtual Nursing: What Leaders Measure and Why, March 23

March 16, 2026

Webinar: Making the Case for Virtual Nursing: What Leaders Measure and Why, March 23

Hybrid nursing programs are gaining momentum, but securing alignment across nursing, finance and operations remains a persistent challenge.

In this webinar, senior healthcare leaders discuss how to build durable business cases for virtual nursing programs and secure buy-in from executive teams and front-line leaders. The conversation explores how organizations can objectively evaluate vendors, define meaningful success metrics and demonstrate ROI that extends beyond virtual noise productivity alone.

Insights include:

  • Staffing models, budget neutrality and both qualitative and quantitative performance measures,
  • How leaders assess impact on bedside workload, nurse burnout and retention, and
  • Practical guidance for framing value, addressing stakeholder concerns and moving hybrid nursing initiatives from proposal to approval.

Cost: Free

When: Monday, March 23, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Coming Soon: New Funding Opportunities

March 12, 2026

Coming Soon: New Funding Opportunities

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) plans to release eight new funding opportunities to support the health workforce. Use the links below to access the funding forecast, which includes eligibility and application details.

Please Note: The application window for these opportunities will be shorter than usual.

These are forecasted grant opportunities and may change in the future.

Program Funding: $800,000   Expected Awards: 8

This program aims to increase the number of dental and dental hygiene faculty in the workforce by assisting training programs to attract and retain full-time faculty through loan repayment.

Program Funding: $24,262,837   Expected Awards: 33

This program aims to increase the nursing workforce and address the nursing shortage in rural and medically underserved communities by supporting innovative educational and clinical training opportunities.

Program Funding: $25,600,00   Expected Awards: 80

This program seeks to increase the number of qualified nursing faculty nationwide by providing low-interest loans for students studying to be nurse faculty, as well as loan cancelation for graduates who go on to work as faculty.

Program Funding: $20,000,000   Expected Awards: 36

This program aims to increase nursing education opportunities for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Program Funding: $1,000,000   Expected Awards: 1

This program serves as a resource and training hub to support the development of faculty who teach primary care dentistry; advance community and population-level approaches to assess and improve oral health outcomes; prepare dental faculty for leadership roles; and provide other faculty development opportunities.

Program Funding: $5,980,000   Expected Awards: 12

This program supports the training of postdoctoral health care professionals who are planning to pursue careers in biomedical and behavioral health research related to primary care.

Program Funding: $51,079,900   Expected Awards: 80

This program provides funding for health professions schools to offer scholarships to students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Rural Health Research: A Comparison of Independent and System-Affiliated Rural Hospitals

March 12, 2026

Rural Health Research: A Comparison of Independent and System-Affiliated Rural Hospitals

Rural hospitals play a critical role in ensuring that people living in small towns and remote areas can access essential health care. However, many rural hospitals face ongoing financial pressures, staffing shortages, and declining patient volumes, all of which increase the risk of service cuts or closure. This brief examines how independent, and system affiliated rural hospitals differ across organizational structure, financial performance, community context, and financial distress risk, using the most recent national data to inform policymakers, researchers, and rural health stakeholders.

Key findings:

In this study, system-affiliated hospitals are defined as those that are part of a chain organization (as reported in the Medicare Hospital Cost Report), and independent hospitals are those that are not part of a chain organization. Considering organizational characteristics, financial performance, and county characteristics, this study found that, compared to system-affiliated rural hospitals, independent rural hospitals:

  • Had fewer acute beds.
  • Had a higher proportion that were Critical Access Hospitals, did not receive a low volume adjustment, did not participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program, were government owned, operated Rural Health Clinics, provided long-term care, used swing beds, and were located in areas with Rural-Urban Commuting Area Codes 7-10 (small towns and rural areas).
  • Were substantially less profitable, had lower net patient revenue and acute average daily census, and had higher long-term debt and Medicare inpatient payer mix.
  • Were in counties with a smaller population, a higher percentage of residents in rural areas, and higher uninsured rates.

Click Here to Read Full Brief

Call for Applications: 2026 Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Challenge!

March 12, 2026

Call for Applications: 2026 Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Challenge!

Many health are professionals work with their patients to achieve blood pressure control. The 2026 Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Challenge will identify medical practices in the United States and its territories that have demonstrated exceptional rates of patient hypertension control.

Health professionals and practices that have achieved patient hypertension control rates of at least 80% are eligible to enter the 2026 Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Challenge for possible recognition as a Champion.

The submission deadline is April 30, 2026.

About the Challenge

The Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Challenge identifies clinicians, practices, and health systems that have demonstrated exceptional achievements in working with their patients to control hypertension. This year, we will be recognizing those who achieved blood pressure control (blood pressure readings below 140 mm Hg/90 mm Hg) among 80% of their hypertensive population ages 18-85 years.

The challenge is open to clinicians and medical practices in the United States and its territories. Strategies used by Champions that support hypertension control may be written into a success story and posted on the Million Hearts website.

Click Here to Learn More About the Challenge Rules and Eligibility

Click Here for Application Form

2026 Nurse Corps Scholarship Program Application Cycle is Now Open, Apply by April 9

March 12, 2026

2026 Nurse Corps Scholarship Program Application Cycle is Now Open, Apply by April 9

The Nurse Corps Scholarship Program is accepting applications through April 9, 7:30 p.m. E.T.

Administered through HRSA’s Bureau of Health Workforce, this program provides funding to future nurses to help cover tuition, fees, a monthly stipend, and other costs. Current and accepted nursing students at eligible accredited schools of nursing can apply.

Click Here to Learn More and Apply

HHS Releases Cybersecurity Toolkit

March 12, 2026

HHS Releases Cybersecurity Toolkit

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is introducing a new cybersecurity module within the Risk Identification and Site Criticality (RISC) 2.0 Toolkit.

“Cyber threats are growing more sophisticated. This module is the latest addition to our toolkit of resources to assist our health care and public health partners in preventing the disruption of patient care and strengthening national health security,” says ASPR Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary John Knox. “We must acknowledge that cyber safety is patient safety and that cyber threats can cause cascading problems across the health care industry. The new cybersecurity module will help our partners understand what is needed to strengthen their resilience.

RISC 2.0 is a free, web-based platform where organizations can conduct risk assessments by identifying threats, assessing vulnerabilities, determining consequences and criticality, and sharing findings with stakeholders. Currently more than 3,500 Health Systems are using the RISC Tool.

The new cybersecurity module guides users through a series of questions about their policies and practices, scoring responses against the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 and HHS Cybersecurity Performance Goals. This objective, standards-based approach helps organizations identify critical gaps, prioritize investments, and make informed decisions about risk mitigation. When health care organizations have the means to identify risks and vulnerabilities, they can implement strategies that minimize disruptions to patient care and strengthen preparedness and resilience.

Click Here to Learn More

Click Here to Access RISC Toolkit 2.0

Click Here to Access the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0

Beyond the EHR: The Enterprise AI Strategy that Restores Revenue Predictability

March 12, 2026

Beyond the EHR: The Enterprise AI Strategy that Restores Revenue Predictability

Many organizations have invested heavily in artificial intelligence often through EHR-native functionality to stabilize operations and offset labor constraints. These investments have improved throughput in certain areas, but they have not consistently reduced denials, eliminated rework or delivered the predictability executives expect. In many cases, automation has simply accelerated existing problems rather than preventing them, and resulted in accounts shifting from one edit workqueue to another, to another, etc.

A growing number of health systems are now recognizing a critical distinction: optimizing the revenue cycle requires incorporating AI across the entire revenue lifecycle, not forcing revenue cycle work to fit inside EHR functionality that was never designed to manage financial risk. The difference is not automation versus no automation. It is point solutions versus enterprise intelligence.

Read this article to learn about:

  • The limits of claims-based and EHR-bound AI,
  • Breaking down silos across the revenue lifecycle,
  • Why EHR-native functionality is not enough,
  • A practical blueprint for revenue cycle transformation, and
  • Making revenue predictable again.

Click Here to Read Full Article

Whitepaper: Agentic AI in Healthcare: The Transformational Impact & How to Prepare

March 10, 2026

Whitepaper: Agentic AI in Healthcare: The Transformational Impact & How to Prepare

Traditional automation has improved efficiency, but it remains limited by static rules and predefined workflows.

As operational complexity increases, leaders are expected to make faster, more accurate decisions across revenue cycle, care delivery and population health – often without the real-time insights required to do so. Manual exception handling, delayed claims processing and fragmented data continue to strain both provider and payer organizations.

Agentic AI introduces a different model.

By operating autonomously within defined processes, learning from new information and adapting to changing conditions, agentic AI extends beyond conventional
RPA and generative AI. It can analyze large datasets, identify patterns and guide evidence-based strategies across departments.

However, successful implementation requires careful attention to data security, transparency, workforce readiness and governance structures.

This report outlines how healthcare leaders can move from experimentation to structured adoption.

Key takeaways include:

  • The defining characteristics that differentiate agentic AI from traditional
    AI and automation,
  • Real-world provider and payer applications that improve operational and financial performance,
  • Risks leaders must address, including security, oversight and workforce training, and
  • A step-by-step preparation roadmap, from pilots to enterprise integration.

Click Here to Download Whitepaper

Webinar: Beyond Survival: How Rural Hospitals Can Build Future-Ready IT, Wednesday, March 25

March 10, 2026

Webinar: Beyond Survival: How Rural Hospitals Can Build Future-Ready IT, Wednesday, March 25

Modernizing IT in rural healthcare isn’t easy. Tight budgets, difficulty attracting and retaining skilled talent, and escalating cyber risks make it hard for rural hospitals to move beyond day-to-day survival.

This webinar examines how rural hospitals can modernize IT without breaking the bank. The focus is on how strategic partnerships and flexible leadership models can help organizations stabilize core systems, address risk and plan more effectively for the future.

Through real-world examples, attendees will learn how access to experienced IT leadership, enterprise-level capabilities and guidance on funding opportunities can support more sustainable decision-making. The session highlights practical approaches that help rural hospitals move from reactive IT management to more structured, future-ready planning.

Learning points:

  • Why a long-term strategic IT partner is essential for rural hospitals,
  • How full-time or fractional IT leadership supports expertise and continuity,
  • Turning funding opportunities into actionable IT upgrades, and
  • Real-world success stories in modernization and cyber resilience.

Cost: Free

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

Click Here to Register