What are rural emergency hospitals?

Rural Emergency Hospitals (REHs) are a new Medicare provider type created to preserve essential emergency and outpatient access in rural communities where low inpatient volume makes full-service hospitals financially unsustainable. They receive enhanced outpatient payments and a fixed monthly facility payment in exchange for forgoing acute inpatient care.​ CMS has an REH fact sheet that…

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Why AI Is Falling Short on Patient Engagement at Hospitals

New research shows that while health systems are pouring money into AI tools, most are still struggling to use the technology to meaningfully engage patients. Moving beyond generic outreach to “N-of-1 personalization” could be key to closing engagement gaps and improving patient outcomes at scale, said Amy Bucher, chief behavioral officer at Lirio. The post…

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An Arm and a Leg: A Few More Good Things From 2025

An Arm and a Leg host Dan Weissmann breaks down how two states passed laws aimed at protecting people from things like medical debt, insurance delays and denials, and corporate profiteering. In Maine, lawmakers unanimously voted to remove medical debts from credit reports. While a nationwide court ruling has cast doubt on the new law’s…

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