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
Across the US, 11 states are considering legislation that would restrict facility fees from hospital outpatient billing for Medicare services. These are known as “site-neutral” provisions and play an essential part in covering the cost of care. The pending proposals would cut between $3 and $180 billion from hospitals over the next 10 years, but thanks to the great advocacy of hospitals and association leaders across our state, Michigan successfully rejected House Bill 5770, which would disallow facility fees, just last week. Facility fees cover every part of the cost of care besides direct professional fees, ensuring hospitals have the resources they need to provide care. While we must continue to drive costs down for patients, stripping hospitals of their basic resources is not an effective or ethical way to do so.
Damage Report
This week’s damage report will attempt to summarize some of the health and healthcare effects of the wave of storms across the US, though we recognize many more communities than we can account for are being impacted.
In Hawaii, Hurricane Lala recently passed over the big island without making landfall, but the storm still resulted in many injuries and one casualty. Floods, power outages and damage to the wastewater system have serious implications for people dependent on oxygen tanks and those unable to leave their home or reach a medical facility due to blocked roads.
Northwest Indiana is finally experiencing power restorations after two weeks of outages resulting from extreme storms and flooding across the Midwest. Many patients relying on daily care like dialysis or vital medications faced stalled care and access barriers that continue to affect their health and sense of stability. Oxygen-dependent individuals not only struggled with access to refills, but were at greater risk of carbon monoxide poisoning due to poor ventilation from generator power. During the outages, hospitals with power offered services like community meals and medical oxygen refills. Recovery efforts for this area are ongoing.
Public health officials across the country are concerned with more than the immediate effects of weather like this. Heat waves, wildfires, and flooding have cascading effects on healthcare resources and the communities our rural hospitals serve. Leaders in state resilience and emergency response are seeing their systems put to the test as they undergo series of challenges with mounting severity. As a rural hospital, we are deeply familiar with the challenges of dealing with natural disasters with few resources and limited access to assistance. Thank you to every hospital, healthcare worker, emergency shelter, and volunteer who has been there for the communities most vulnerable to the latest storms.
Success Story
Rural households sometimes lack consistent internet access, making telehealth visits from home an unreliable solution for transportation barriers. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Texas A&M University recently partnered to establish Davis Mountain Clinic, a telehealth clinic in rural Texas where patients can visit in-person with a nurse navigator but receive telehealth connections to providers for primary care, mental health services, diabetes education, wound care and more. This model of care is designed for underserved populations, regardless of income or insurance status, and charges patients a flat fee with the goal of making primary and preventive care in rural communities more affordable and accessible.
Sources
Twilight Greenaway Et al., “Hurricane Lala Passes Big Island: Hawaiʻi Spared From Direct Hit,” August 15, 2026, https://www.civilbeat.org/2026/08/hurricane-lala-brings-rain-and-strong-winds-thousands-on-hawaii-island-lose-power/, Honolulu Civil Beat.
Joseph S. Pete, “2 Methodist Hospitals campuses have power again, offering public food and services,” August 18, 2026, https://nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/article_58a16c9f-b147-427c-bed9-9007ad31f581.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_The_Times_of_Northwest_Indiana&fbclid=IwY2xjawT9erNwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR4BcplBpGKi72APyCMIiTHemUnNCkZM9vFSlXN-Wzg6GYqmTX86J6DqJ35WCA_aem_knYqaiBHKDJx0OGlMzTrlQ, NWI Times.
Aaron Dorman, “Power Down,” August 26, 2026, https://chicagohealthonline.com/northwest-indiana-storms-power-outage-health/, Chicago Health.
The Associated Press, “’Survival mode’: Indiana residents endure a ninth day without power,” August 21, 2026, https://www.wunc.org/2026-08-21/survival-mode-indiana-residents-endure-a-ninth-day-without-power, WUNC News.
Kristiane Huber, “How States Are Navigating the Intersection of Disasters and Public Health,” May 5, 2026, https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2026/05/05/how-states-are-navigating-the-intersection-of-disasters-and-public-health, The Pew Charitable Trust.
American Hospital Association, “Fact Sheet: Facility Fees,” February 2025, https://www.aha.org/fact-sheets/2025-02-20-fact-sheet-facility-fees.
Stephen Abresch, “Michigan Introduces Facility Fee Restriction Legislation,” April 10, 2026, https://archive.ascfocus.org/content2/articles-content/articles/2026/digital-debut/michigan-introduces-facility-fee-restriction-legislation, ASC Focus.
Jayme Lozano Carver, “Lack of broadband service, funding gives rise to telehealth services in rural clinics,” August 6, 2026, https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/06/rural-texas-telehealth-services-broadband-access/, The Texas Tribune.
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.
