Over the last year, 18 rural hospitals closed or converted to an operating model that excludes inpatient care, according to a new analysis from the Chartis Center for Rural Health. That brings the total number of closures since 2010 to 182. During this week’s Value-Based Payment Summit, Janice Walters, M.S.H.A., executive director of the Rural Health Care Redesign Center in Harrisburg, Pa., said more innovation is needed in rural payment models as she discussed her experience working with 18 rural hospitals under a global budget in Pennsylvania.
Just over 34.4 million people were enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans as of Feb. 1, representing fairly slim growth across the program's annual enrollment period. Enrollment grew by 3.8% from February 2024 to February 2025, according to anticipated data released this week from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This would make for the lowest growth rate in more than a decade, according to researchers at KFF.
Since the pandemic, physicians have seen a 57% increase in online patient portal messages, yet few health systems bill for medical advice messages, a survey released Feb. 25 from Vizient found. Vizient and the Association of American Medical Colleges surveyed 40 health systems across 24 states to examine how they are using patient portal communication, including medical advice messages and structured e-visits.
The Department of Veterans Affairs needs to figure out the cost of its troubled electronic health record modernization program as it moves to restart deployments of the new software, lawmakers and witnesses warned during a House hearing on Monday. VA initially signed a $10 billion contract — which was later revised to over $16 billion — with Cerner in May 2018 to modernize its legacy health record system and make it interoperable with the Pentagon’s new health record, which was also provided by Cerner. Oracle later acquired Cerner in 2022.
Staffing shortages at post-acute facilities around the country led to a 24% increase over three years in hospital length of stay among patients who need skilled nursing care, according to a 2022 analysis. With no place to go, these patients occupy expensive hospital beds they don’t need, while others wait in emergency rooms for those spots. Offering intensive services and remote monitoring technology in the home can work as an alternative — especially in rural areas, where nursing homes are closing at a faster rate than in cities and patients’ relatives often must travel far to visit.
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