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I am writing this from Lost City, West Virginia, population somewhere between 180 and 320. George Washington spent time here as a younger man while surveying (what was then) the American frontier.
Earlier this week, over dinner at a local restaurant, a man walked me through his knee replacement. Two and a half hours to the surgery. Thirty minutes each way, ongoing, for the physical therapy.
That distance to care is one hallmark of rural healthcare. Which made it timely to read yet another story suggesting the country's newest fix for rural health could be artificial intelligence.
In a deep dive that's worth the read, KFF Health News followed the money around the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program. Congress created the fund last year as a sweetener attached to the reconciliation law that also cuts federal Medicaid spending by more than $900 billion over the next decade, cuts that land hardest on the rural hospitals the fund is meant to save. So the money arrives with a heavy expectation. Do more with less. And "do more with less" is increasingly being answered with AI.
