Rural Spotlight

Funding Opportunity: Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement Program, HRSA-26-046, Applications Due by August 6

June 30, 2026

Funding Opportunity: Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement Program, HRSA-26-046, Applications Due by August 6

The purpose of the Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement Program is to strengthen the quality improvement culture in small rural healthcare facilities by building capacity to effectively collect and use clinical data while implementing evidence-based approaches to improve health care quality with a particular focus on improving chronic disease outcomes.

Additionally, the program strengthens the skills and collaboration of the billing and coding staff in coordination with the front-line clinical staff. By creating a sustainable quality improvement capacity in small hospitals and clinics, these facilities will be better positioned to take part in value-based care models while also enhancing health care status for their patients.

Eligible Applicants:

  • County governments
  • Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education,
  • Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments),
  • Special district governments,
  • Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education,
  • Native American tribal governments (federally recognized),
  • City or township governments, and
  • Others (see additional information on eligibility).

Additional Information on Eligibility:

Eligible applicants must be a rural domestic public or nonprofit private health care provider or provider of health care services, such as a critical access hospital, a rural health clinic; or be another rural provider or network of small rural providers identified by the Secretary as a key source of local or regional care; and not previously have received an award under this subsection for the same or similar project. The applicant organization must be in a rural area.

 

Apply by August 6, 11:59 p.m. ET

Click Here to Learn More and Apply

CMS Releases 2027 End-Stage Renal Disease Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule, Comment by August 24

June 30, 2026

CMS Releases 2027 End-Stage Renal Disease Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule, Comment by August 24

On June 24, 2026, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule to update payment rates and policies under the Medicare End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System (PPS) for renal dialysis services furnished to Medicare beneficiaries on or after January 1, 2027.

CMS is proposing to increase the base ESRD PPS rate by approximately 1.1% and proposes changes to the adjustments for low volume facilities and pediatric patients. CMS also proposed changes to the quality measures collected as part of the ESRD Quality Improvement Program.

Comments are due in the Federal Register by 11:59 p.m. on August 24, 2026.

Click Here to Learn More and Submit a Comment

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

June 30, 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

Whitepaper: New CIO Report: Closing the Gap Between AI Pilots and Payoff

June 30, 2026

Whitepaper: New CIO Report: Closing the Gap Between AI Pilots and Payoff

Many health systems have AI pilots running, but only 4% have scaled AI with measurable outcomes. This second annual CIO report, based on a survey and 1:1 interviews with more than 60 health system technology leaders, reveals what is driving that gap and what it takes to close it.

And the pressure to act has never been higher. Razor thin margins, a worsening workforce crisis and sweeping cuts to federal healthcare funding mean the cost of waiting is no longer abstract – 94% of leaders surveyed say delays in operationalizing AI would put their organization at a competitive disadvantage, and 77% say even a one-to-two-year delay would result in meaningful lost savings and efficiency gains.

The full report includes detailed findings on EHR dependency, agentic AI adoption, vendor consolidation strategies and five concrete recommendations for CIOs navigating these decisions in 2026.

Key learnings:

  • The ROI measurement gap stalling AI scale, and why most leaders still struggle to quantify returns at all,
  • Why EHR dependency remains the top execution barrier and willingness to wait for EHR vendors has declined sharply,
  • Why automated care operations have moved from future consideration to mission-critical for more than 70% of leaders, and
  • What health systems consolidating around platform partners are doing differently – and why so few have made the shift.

Click Here to Download this Whitepaper

Webinar: The EVS Single-Use Debate is Shifting: What the Data Means for Cost and Sustainability, July 13

June 30, 2026

Webinar: The EVS Single-Use Debate is Shifting: What the Data Means for Cost and Sustainability, July 13

Budgets are tight, clinical standards are higher than ever, and sustainability scrutiny is intensifying. Yet many hospitals still run fragmented environmental services programs: multiple disinfectant chemistries, inconsistent ordering and heavy reliance on reusable textiles that drive laundry, logistics and rework.

Left unaddressed, that complexity compounds. Every added product and one-off process pulls staff time, inflates spend and makes it harder to answer questions about quality and environmental impact. Leaders are now re-evaluating long-held assumptions about what belongs in an EVS portfolio.

Join an infection prevention specialist for a grounded discussion on optimizing EVS. The program will outline how hospitals are standardizing disinfectants across facilities, consolidating to fewer products and evaluating a shift from reusable to single-use wipes, mops and textiles, with takeaways from laundering comparison studies and a sustainability lens that holds up to scrutiny.

You will learn:

  • A step-by-step approach to standardize disinfectants without disrupting care,
  • A transparent cost comparison for reusable versus single use, including laundry and labor,
  • How to build an evidence-based sustainability narrative for EVS products, and
  • Governance and compliance guardrails that sustain savings and quality gains.

Cost: Free

When: Monday, July 13, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Report: Furniture Playbook: 5 Ways Healthcare Facilities Can Optimize Space and Efficiency

June 30, 2026

Report: Furniture Playbook: 5 Ways Healthcare Facilities Can Optimize Space and Efficiency

Long wait times, crowded waiting rooms and frustrated staff often point to one issue: inefficient use of space.

Healthcare organizations across hospitals, clinics, senior living and behavioral health settings are under pressure to improve throughput and staff experience without expanding their footprint. This report outlines five practical steps to help leaders assess current layouts, uncover underused space and improve day-to-day efficiency.

The report details how healthcare organizations can take a more flexible approach to rooms, storage, scheduling and furniture selection to support changing patient volumes and operational needs. The report also explores why adaptable, multipurpose spaces matter more as patient demand grows and construction costs remain high.

Download the report to learn how to:

  • Assess your current space and identify opportunities to improve efficiency,
  • Reconfigure rooms and layouts for more flexible, multipurpose use,
  • Streamline storage, scheduling and supply placement to reduce bottlenecks, and
  • Select furniture solutions that support adaptability for staff and patients.

Click Here to Download this Report

Whitepaper: How AMC Leaders are Translating Workforce and Research into Business Value

June 30, 2026

Whitepaper: How AMC Leaders are Translating Workforce and Research into Business Value

Academic medical centers are facing a convergence of pressures: Medicaid cuts under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, tightening NIH funding and labor costs that now represent 60% of total hospital expenses, up 5.6% in 2025. For many C-suites and boards, the question has become unavoidable – is the academic mission a strategic asset or a sunk cost?

Leaders from Mass General Brigham, OU Health, Northwestern Medicine, Emory Healthcare, Rush University System for Health and other AMCs answered that question at Becker’s 16th Annual Meeting. Their answer: translate the mission, don’t defund it.

The results speak for themselves. OU Health grew revenue organically from $1.6 billion to $3.6 billion following a merger. UChicago Medicine increased grant submissions 48% year over year. And UVA Health attracted a major pharmaceutical partnership through transparent funds flow. This whitepaper captures the strategies behind those outcomes and more.

Download to learn:

  • Why incremental integration fails and what structural change actually requires,
  • How AMCs are redesigning workforce as a system-level strategy, not a staffing function,
  • How research is being repositioned as a brand differentiator and industry partnership engine, and
  • The governance, funds flow and compensation models driving measurable results.

Click Here to Download this Whitepaper

Webinar: Beyond the Bottleneck: How Health Systems are Improving Access, Flow and Care Continuity, July 30

June 30, 2026

Webinar: Beyond the Bottleneck: How Health Systems are Improving Access, Flow and Care Continuity, July 30

Crowded Eds, delayed discharges, clinician shortages and rising financial pressure are squeezing health systems from every direction. For years the answer was to add capacity. In most markets, that is no longer realistic.

This panel brings together executives from Vituity, Mayo Clinic Laboratories, Houston Methodist, City of Hope and Hospital Sisters Health System to discuss a smarter path: redesigning care delivery across the continuum – emergency departments, hospital medicine, ambulatory follow-up, behavioral health, virtual care and community partnerships.

The conversation moves past dashboards to the operational, clinical and workforce alignment that actually moves patients through a system. Leaders will share where flow breaks down, what separates real improvement from cosmetic fixes and how to design care models around the workforce they actually have.

Learnings include:

  • Why access is now an enterprise strategy, not a department problem,
  • How to align physician groups, nursing, case management and post-acute partners around shared throughput goals,
  • Site-of-care strategies – observation, telehealth, behavioral health pathways – that keep avoidable volume out of constrained settings, and
  • Where the handoffs between settings turn strategy into a readmission, and how leaders close those gaps.

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, July 30, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Webinar: Integrating PrEP into Primary Care: A System-level Approach to HIV Prevention, Outcomes, and Equity, July 7

June 30, 2026

Webinar: Integrating PrEP into Primary Care: A System-level Approach to HIV Prevention, Outcomes, and Equity, July 7

While HIV prevention continues to be a public health priority, it has often been siloed in specialty settings and inconsistently measured from a quality lens. Health systems that have embedded pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) into primary care are seeing a different story: higher PrEP uptake, more equitable access, and a clearer path to sustainable program growth.

This webinar brings together HIV prevention leaders from NYU Langone Health and Henry Ford Health and others to share how they built and scaled PrEP programs within primary care – and what it took to make them work.

You’ll hear how they:

  • Redesigned workflows, care team roles and HER tools to support front-line PrEP delivery,
  • Increased uptake of both oral and long-acting injectable PrEP while managing program costs,
  • Used data and population health infrastructure to close equity gaps and reach priority populations, and
  • Built internal quality measures and a business case to sustain investment at scale.

Cost: Free

When: Tuesday, July 7, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

RHQIX Connect – Live Event, July 9

June 30, 2026

RHQIX Connect – Live Event, July 9

You don’t have to do rural health improvement alone. Join StratisHealth for a 30-minute interactive session to get a first look at RHQIX, the Rural Health Quality Improvement Exchange, a growing national community designed for rural health quality improvement professionals.

What to Expect:

  • A tour of the RHQIX platform,
  • How to connect with rural peers across the county,
  • Practical tools, resources, and learning opportunities you can use right away, and
  • A conversation about what you need and want from this community.

Who Should Attend:

  • Rural hospital & clinic leaders and administration,
  • Quality, compliance, and patient safety professionals,
  • Public health & community partners,
  • State Hospital Associations,
  • State Offices of Rural Health, and
  • Rural Health Partners

This isn’t a traditional webinar. It’s a conversation focused on what you need and how RHQIX can support your work.

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, July 9, 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register