Rural Health Workshop: Friday, June 27

Agenda

This year’s Rural Health Workshop agenda is packed full of speakers from the state and national level covering a variety of topics including mental and behavioral health, maternal and child health, regulatory risk prevention, telehealth and more! Take a look at the Rural Health Workshop schedule and start planning your sessions.


Check-In and Breakfast with Exhibitors

7:00-8:00 a.m.


Plenary Session


8:00-8:45 a.m.

Welcome to the 2025 Virtual Rural Health Workshop

Room: Bourbeau Grand Ballroom

  • Welcome
    • State Office of Rural Health Team, Well-Ahead Louisiana
  • Opening Remarks
    • Dr. Euil Luther, MD, Regional Medical Director, Office of Public Health Region 8

8:45-9:45 a.m.

Strategic Risk: What Do Rural Healthcare Leaders Need to Know?

Room: Bourbeau Grand Ballroom

  • Session Speaker
    • Jeffrey Sommer, MPP, Managing Director, Stroudwater Associates
  • Session Description

    This session will help attendees understand how the fi nancial and operational performance of rural hospitals affects their risk levels, ability to remain independent, and options for forming strong, sustainable partnerships. Participants will learn how to evaluate their hospital’s performance, compare the risks and benefi ts of staying independent versus partnering, and reduce risk by selecting the right partner, structure, and terms. The session will also highlight the unique value rural hospitals bring to their communities and how to strengthen that value—whether as independent facilities or as part of a larger health system—using real-world examples.

Break

9:45-10:00 a.m.


Virtual Breakout Session #1

10:00 – 10:45 a.m.

10:45 – 11:00 a.m.

Virtual Breakout Session #1

Health Professional Shortage Areas Update

Room: Salon III

  • Session Speaker
    • Beth Butler, HPSA Program Manager, Well-Ahead Louisiana
  • Session Description

    This presentation will provide updates on everything going on with Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), a discussion about Maternal Care Target Areas (MCTAs), and the Primary Care Office Annual Report.

11:00 a.m.-11:45 a.m.

Virtual Break-Out Session #2

Room: Salon III

  • Session Speaker
    • Tangela Womack
  • Session Description

    This session will provide attendees with an understanding of grant strategy, why the process of strategizing is important, and what assets/topics should be considered when creating a strategy/plan. This session will be interactive in that attendees will be given information, resources, and guidance throughout the the session and can being formulating a grant strategy individual to the participant’s organizational/programmatic needs.

Breakout Session: Rural Hospitals

10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.

2024 Updates for Rural Hospitals

Room: Salon IV

11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

Revitalizing Rural Healthcare: Innovations in Finding the Right People for Rural Health Systems

Room: Salon IV

  • Session Speakers
    • Jheri Corb, MS, EPc, CES, Vice President of Client Success, AHSA
    • Jay Sage, Senior Vice President of Workforce Solutions, AHSA
  • Session Description

    Ensuring access to quality healthcare in rural areas presents unique challenges including the recruitment and retention of skilled healthcare professionals. This speaking engagement will explore innovative strategies and transformative approaches to attract and retain the right people for rural health systems while leveraging technology and workforce solutions to promote cost savings and employee retention.

Breakout Session: Rural Health Clinics

10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.

Self Survey to Stay in Compliance

Room: Salon I and II

  • Session Speakers
    • Steve Simmerman, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, The Compliance Team
  • Session Description

    This talk will teach clinics how to do self-surveys to stay in compliance with all regulations.  Listeners will learn what to look for to always be survey ready.  Will talk about tricks to make it easier to stay organized.

11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

Rural Health Clinic Billing Transition

Room: Salon I and II

  • Session Speaker
    • Amy Graham, Principal, Stroudwater Associates
  • Session Description

    This session will share how a New York physician practice received designation to become a Provider-Based Rural Health Clinic (RHC) under a rural hospital, and after several starts and stops related to RHC billing, was able to successfully bill and collect payment for services provided as a Rural Health Clinic.

Lunch Break

11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m.

Lunch and Learn Session

12:00 – 1:30 p.m.

Ask the Experts: Medicaid Managed Care Organizations

Room: Bourbeau Grand Ballroom

  • Session Speaker
    • Aetna Better Health
    • AmeriHealth Caritas
    • HealthyBlue
    • Humana Healthy Horizons
    • Louisiana Healthcare Connections
    • United Healthcare Community Plan
  • Session Description

    Meet with Medicaid Managed Care representatives to discuss your specific questions, concerns, and challenges.  Each representative in attendance will be assigned a table in the Bourbeau Grand Ballroom Salons I & II for the duration of the session. Grab your lunch and sit at the table of the representative that you wish to speak with – feel free to move between tables as needed throughout the session to discuss any questions or concerns you have with different organizations.

  • Food/Refreshments Provided

    Plated Lunch (Pork Loin), Salad, Bread Pudding

Breakout Session: Federally Qualified Health Centers


12:45-1:30 p.m.

Obstetric Readiness in Emergency Departments: What You Need to Know

Room: Salon III

  • Session Speaker
    • Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell, MD, Medical Director, Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative Bureau of Family Health
  • Session Description

    Across the country, as we are seeing more and more maternity care deserts, it is crucial that emergency departments become “Obstetric Ready”. This means being prepared to appropriately identify, assess and manage potential obstetric emergencies ensuring the necessary staff, equipment, protocols and training to provide safe and effective care for pregnant and postpartum patients. Through the Obstetric Readiness in Emergency Departments (ORED) initiative, the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative (LaPQC) is partnering with Emergency Departments to implement evidence-based practices to ensure obstetric readiness to improve maternal outcomes.

Break

1:30-1:45 p.m.


1:45-2:15 p.m.

Cybersecurity Hygiene & Digital Vaccine

Room: Salon III

  • Session Speakers
    • Joshua Tannehill, Vice President, InfraGard
  • Session Description

    This session will give attendees a rundown of trending cyber threats and most effective mitigations using healthcare analogies they can understand while listing free resources they can afford.

Breakout Session: Rural Hospitals

2:15-3:15 p.m.

Multi-System Responsiveness and Missed Handoffs – How System Changes Impact Everyone

Room: Salon IV

  • Session Speaker
    • Jason Haglund, MS, CADC, Senior Consultant, Rural Policy Partners
  • Session Description

    This presentation will highlight the growing trauma responses triggered by chronic stressors that have gone unaddressed over the past few years. Anxiety, depression, and isolation have reached epidemic levels in rural, remote, and frontier America. Compounding these issues is the rising tide of substance use and abuse, which exacerbates the challenges faced by these communities. Many rural and frontier states struggle with complex needs, workforce retention, and care coordination. As a result, employees are increasingly burned out, leaving providers without critical resources to meet the ever growing need.
    The facilitator(s) of this session will examine the gap between policymakers’ well-intentioned behavioral healthcare policy designs of trauma-informed integrated care and the stark realities of implementation. The post-pandemic era has revealed a healthcare workforce traumatized by ongoing challenges and resource shortages. By exploring these issues, this presentation aims to propose solutions and initiate conversations on the urgent need for a thoughtful, well-planned structural overhaul of rural behavioral health systems.

2:30-3:30 p.m.

What Rural Hospitals Should Know About Partnerships

Room: Salon IV

  • Session Speaker
    • Clare Kelley, MPH, Senior Consultant, Stroudwater Associate
  • Session Description

    Participants will receive a comprehensive framework for understanding partnerships and their relevance in today’s rural healthcare landscape. The session will delve into alternative partnership structures and emerging partnership models.

    The presentation will include real-world case studies, offering tangible examples of how the value of rural health systems can be measured and sustained, whether by remaining independent or through strategic partnerships tailored to specific organizational circumstances. Importantly, these case studies will include lessons relevant to improving and refining existing partnerships as well as crafting new partnerships. A crucial aspect of this presentation involves an examination of stand-alone strategic and operating risks for rural health systems, along with tools to identify and mitigate inherent partner risks associated with any collaboration. By exploring these case studies, participants will gain valuable insights into the essential attributes of successful partnerships, approaches for improving existing partnerships and the inherent risks associated with such collaborations.

Breakout Session: Rural Hospitals

1:30-2:30 p.m.

Starting Chronic Care Management in a Rural Health Clinic

Room: Salon I and II

  • Session Speaker
    • Scott Brouillette MSN, RN, CCRN, NI-BC, Owner/Consultant, Gulf South Analytics
  • Session Description

    This presentation provides a guide for starting Chronic Care Management (CCM) programs that are tailored to rural health clinics. You will learn how to overcome challenges, establish effective processes, and ensure sustainability for providing quality patient care. Gain practical insights and strategies to initiate your CCM program and make a meaningful impact in rural healthcare delivery.

2:30-3:30 p.m.

Telehealth for Rural Health Clinics

Room: Salon I and II

  • Session Speaker
    • Chrisey Smith, MBA, Healthcare Innovation Supervisor, Well-Ahead Louisiana
  • Session Description

    The COVID-19 pandemic drove an unparalleled expansion in the use of telemedicine, which policymakers encouraged by easing rules and restrictions. Though the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) officially expired May 11, 2023, many of those flexibilities remain in place. As of today, reimbursements for telehealth continue to evolve. This presentation will review the history of telehealth and how it increased access to rural communities, permanent and temporary flexibilities of telehealth billing that were implemented during the PHE, and the future of telehealth billing now that the PHE has ended.

Break with Exhibitors

3:30-4:00 p.m.


Plenary Session

4:00-4:45 p.m.

A View from the Hill: Rural Health Updates from Washington, D.C.

Room: Bourbeau Grand Ballroom

  • Session Speaker
    • Zil Joyce Dixon Romero, State Government Affairs Manager, National Rural Health Association (NRHA)
  • Session Description

    Attendees will delve into the policies shaping healthcare in rural communities. Attendees should expect to gain valuable insights into what’s happening in Washington, legislative agendas, funding priorities, and regulatory changes affecting providers and patients. Expect a comprehensive examination from the federal perspective – offering a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing rural care.

3:15-3:30 p.m.

Closing Session

Room: Bourbeau Grand Ballroom

Networking Reception with Exhibitors

5:00-6:30 p.m.