Rural Health News is a weekly segment of Rural Health Today, a podcast by Hillsdale Hospital.
Welcome back to Rural Health News, the segment of Rural Health Today where we fill you in on the latest in rural health headlines. We’ll cover three headlines in today’s episode: what’s most urgent, a rural health damage report, and a success story to send us into the week.
Most Urgent
The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and other international agencies, issued a joint advisory on August 10 advising hospitals to be on guard against the ransomware service group, Gunra. This group is actively targeting healthcare organizations, gaining access by exploiting weaknesses in authentication-bypass processes. When they make it into the system, Gunra encrypts and ransoms data under the threat of leaking stolen files. Current cybersecurity recommendations for hospitals can be found at cisa.gov.
Damage Report
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized their new payment rule for Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems and Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment Systems. The rule updates payment policies and rates for Medicare patients including changes and codifications for organ acquisition, reimbursement appeals, and tissue-compatible lab testing. These annual updates from CMS help determine how acute care hospitals, teaching hospitals, and PPS hospitals operate based on capital-related costs.
There are several key elements of the new rule: Hospitals participating in the Inpatient Quality Reporting Program will receive a 2.3 percent payment increase, totaling nearly $2 billion in payment growth; spinal fusions eligibility is expanded to align attribution and quality measures with other CMS programs; disproportionate share hospitals will now face decreased payments for uncompensated care—approximately 3.3 percent, or $7.46 billion in payment decreases. The low-wage index policy is discontinued through this rule, and in its place, CMS will implement a budget-neutral transition while maintaining other wage index adjustments. The new rule will go into effect October 1, 2026.
Success Story
Recruiting doctors to work in rural healthcare can be challenging, especially when providers who grew up in a city would rather live and work in one too. Rather than focusing on students from urban communities, The Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, Virginia has spent the last 20 years training the next generation of rural doctors by enrolling local, small-town students. Medical students in the program are exposed to unique rural healthcare challenges in the classroom and by staffing free rural health clinics. As a result of these efforts, doctors graduating from Edward Via College are more likely to practice rural medicine long-term compared to doctors incentivized to work in rural healthcare through short-term federal programs. I love stories like these because they show how supporting local talent provides a years-long solution to staffing challenges in our rural hospitals.
Sources
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Et al., “#StopRansomware: Gunra Ransomware,” August 10, 2026, https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2026-08/aa26-222a-stopransomware-gunra-ransomware_508c.pdf.
Giles Bruce, “Gunra ransomware targets hospitals: CISA, FBI issue new warning,” August 12, 2026, https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/cybersecurity/gunra-ransomware-targets-hospitals-cisa-fbi-issue-new-warning/, Becker’s Health IT.
Department of Health and Human Services, “Medicare Program; Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems for Acute Care Hospitals (IPPS) and the Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System and Policy Changes and Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Rates; Requirements for Quality Programs; Other Policy Changes; and Adoption of Updated Versions of Certain Health Information Technology Standards,” https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-08-04/pdf/2026-15833.pdf.
Miranda A. Franco & Jennifer F. Hananoki, “CMS Releases Fiscal Year 2027 IPPS and LTCH Final Rule,” August 10, 2026, https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2026/08/cms-releases-fiscal-year-2027-ipps-and-ltch-final-rule, Holland & Knight.
Meghan Basler, “CMS Proposes 2.4% IPPS Update for FY 2027 with Targeted Payment Adjustments, DSH Reductions, and Expanded Oversight Across Hospital Policies,” https://www.appliedpolicy.com/cms-proposes-2-4-ipps-update-for-fy-2027-with-targeted-payment-adjustments-dsh-reductions-and-expanded-oversight-across-hospital-policies/, Applied Policy.
Mitch Carr, “Target 7: Southwest Virginia medical school tackles rural healthcare crisis,” August 10, 2026, https://www.wdbj7.com/2026/08/10/target-7bridging-gap-southwest-virginia-medical-school-tackles-rural-healthcare-crisis/, WDBJ7.
Rural Health Today is a production of Hillsdale Hospital in Hillsdale, Michigan and a member of the Health Podcast Network. Our host is JJ Hodshire, our producer is Kyrsten Newlon, and our audio engineer is Kenji Ulmer. Special thanks to our special guests for sharing their expertise on the show, and also to the Hillsdale Hospital marketing team. If you want to submit a question for us to answer on the podcast or learn more about Rural Health Today, visit ruralhealthtoday.com.
