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
Over the past few weeks, hospital leaders and US legislators have been lifting their voices to hold the federal government accountable to supporting rural health. A group of senators sent a letter to Dr. Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, asking for targeted adjustments to the Rural Health Transformation Program. As we encounter more and more rural hospital leaders, community members, and local, state and federal policymakers speaking up about the insufficiency of RHTP, we hear more heartbreaking stories of patients losing access to coverage and see the evidence of hospital closures throughout the nation. Awareness of H.R. 1’s effects is crucial to the future of rural health, especially as we engage in the struggle to ensure RHTP funds actually support rural hospitals, rather than putting them at a disadvantage.
Damage Report
A recent study by The Commonwealth Fund shows that, because of H.R. 1 or the One Big Beautiful Bill, by 2029, Medicaid and ACA funding reductions will negatively impact state economic activity by $197 billion and eliminate 165 million jobs across the country, and that’s just in the first two years of H.R. 1’s implementation. The study projects that 229,000 jobs will disappear before the end of 2026, and every state will experience the effects of economic losses as hospital closures increase. When we remove such a vital economic driver from a community, jobs across multiple sectors disappear and rural neighborhoods lose their long-term sustainability. Hospitals employ nurses, doctors and technicians, but they also employee dietary and environmental service aides, human resources professionals, medical assistants, security officers, administrative staff, and many more types of professionals, offering employee support and career advancement in counties often lacking other opportunities. Without these jobs, our national unemployment rate will go up and our communities will suffer expanding population deserts as economic structures collapse and healthcare disappears from rural America.
Success Story
Due to healthcare workforce shortages and training access issues, rural emergency rooms often cannot staff nurses trained to conduct sexual assault examinations. This creates more travel time and unnecessary stress for survivors of sexual assault. St. Luke’s Health System in Idaho developed a sexual assault telehealth program that connects assault survivors to nurse examiners across the state, ensuring that location does not impact access to specialized care. So far, the program has strengthened community trust in local hospitals and hospital staff report feeling more supported when handling sexual assault cases. Solutions like these highlight the importance of specialized healthcare access, no matter where someone lives.
Sources
Andrew Cass, “Senators warn RHTP may disadvantage independent rural hospitals,” June 24, 2026, https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/senators-warn-rhtp-may-disadvantage-independent-rural-hospitals/, Becker’s Hospital Review.
Hawkins Teague, “Celsor criticizes state’s use of rural health funds,” June 26, 2026, https://www.murrayledger.com/news/local/celsor-criticizes-state-s-use-of-rural-health-funds/article_bf391e95-24c5-4065-a0bf-76cb6f75ad70.html, Murray Ledger & Times.
Sarah Jane Tribble & Amanda Seitz, “’We’ll never know if he could have been saved.’ The gaps in Trump’s rural health fund,” May 22, 2026, https://www.npr.org/2026/05/22/nx-s1-5821038/rural-health-hospitals-50-billion-big-beautiful-bill-obbba, National Public Radio.
Madeline Scheetz, “‘The day we can’t make payroll, it’s over’: Inside 1 rural Minnesota hospital’s fight to stay afloat,” May 15, 2026, https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/the-day-we-cant-make-payroll-its-over-inside-1-rural-minnesota-hospitals-fight-to-stay-afloat/, Becker’s Hospital Review.
The Commonwealth Fund, “H.R. 1 Funding Cuts Will Overshadow Gains from the New Rural Health Transformation Program,” June 9, 2026, https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2026/jun/hr-1-funding-cuts-rural-health-transformation.
Bill Siwicki, “How St. Luke’s is bringing sexual assault forensic care closer to home in rural Idaho,” June 22, 2026, https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-st-lukes-bringing-sexual-assault-forensic-care-closer-home-rural-idaho, Healthcare IT News.
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.
