Direct care

Anna Kim

In the first year of the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), states have homed in on a few core themes designed to improve the nation’s rural health infrastructure.

The RHTP was established under the One Big Beautiful Bill in response to backlash over Medicaid cuts included in the legislation. It allocates a total of $50 billion across all states over five years, to be used on various initiatives tackling issues plaguing patients living in rural areas. States received between $147 million (New Jersey) and $281 million (Texas), with amounts depending on factors including rural population size and number of existing rural health facilities in the state.

Paula Chatterjee, an assistant professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and director of innovation at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, told Healthcare Brew the main areas she’s seeing states prioritize include maternal health, substance use disorder treatment, and telehealth.

Let’s get into it here.—MA

      

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Payers

Getty Images

More than 2 million women in the labor force deliver babies each year, according to US government data.

Once an employee has a child, their employer typically receives a bill from the health plan detailing all the services that worker received during the nine-plus month process, and their costs.

That system will soon change due to a technical change endorsed by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG) that’s expected to take effect next January.

While the new system will allow employers to dig into more granular data about workers who receive pregnancy care, it could also mean higher bills and more administrative complexities, leaders from companies in the maternal health space told us.

Read up on what’s changing here.—CV

      

Tech

Gyde

We already know payers and providers are using it in claims reviews and disputes. But Will Johnson, CEO and co-founder of AI startup Gyde, thinks it can do more. His company, which launched in January, supported by $60 million in seed capital from venture capital firms, acquires independent insurance agencies and uses AI to help them grow.

Johnson told Healthcare Brew why he believes AI can also be a valuable tool for brokers—the professionals who help individuals and groups understand and buy health insurance.

Check out the interview here.—CC

      

vital signs

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: Nearly 2x. That’s how much higher the average drug-related death rate is in Arizona (43.5 per 100,000 people) compared to the rest of the US (22.1 per 100,000) in 2025. (the New York Times)

Quote: “This news feeds into investor fears about how new regulatory moves may affect HCA and the rest of the hospital industry’s near-term profit growth ​trajectory, following several years of excellent results on surging medical utilization.”—Julie Utterback, a Morningstar ​analyst, on how drops in Obamacare enrollment are raising hospital costs (Reuters)

Read: The ALS ice bucket challenge is back. (the Washington Post)