August 24, 2026: Hospitals Dropping Government Payers, Waiver Program Rules & Rural Tribal Health Training

Rural Health News is a weekly segment of Rural Health Today, a podcast by Hillsdale Hospital. News sources for this episode: Elizabeth Casolo, “Mount Sinai quietly stops accepting some new patients with government-backed plans,” August 19, 2026, https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/mount-sinai-quietly-stops-accepting-some-new-patients-with-government-backed-plans/, Becker’s Hospital Review. Elizabeth Casolo, “450,000 New Yorkers risk losing health coverage in wake of $7.5B federal funding cut,” September 10, 2025, https://www.beckerspayer.com/payer/450000-new-yorkers-risk-losing-health-coverage-in-wake-of-7-5b-federal-funding-cut/, Becker’s Payer Issues. Sydney Halleman, “Hospitals feel the pinch as more patients lose insurance,” August 4, 2026, https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/hospitals-feeling-pinch-patients-lose-insurance/826764/, Healthcare Dive. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “CMS’ program history,” https://www.cms.gov/about-cms/who-we-are/history. Nicole Huberfeld & Matthew Lawrence, “Why It Matters: HR1’s Change to Medicaid Waiver Budget Neutrality Rules,” February 19, 2026, https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2026/02/19/why-it-matters-hr1s-change-to-medicaid-waiver-budget-neutrality-rules/, The Petrie-Flom Center. Phil Galewitz, “Trump Team’s Use of Arcane Budget Rule Threatens Medicaid Coverage,” August 14, 2026, https://kffhealthnews.org/medicaid/trump-cms-medicaid-expansion-1115-waivers-budget-neutrality-arkansas/, KFF Health News. The University of Arizona News, “U of A and Gila River Health Care (an entity of the Gila River Indian Community) launch nation's first MD-granting medical school branch within a Tribal Nation,” August 18, 2026, https://news.arizona.edu/news/u-and-gila-river-health-care-entity-gila-river-indian-community-launch-nations-first-md. Rural Health Today is a production of Hillsdale Hospital in Hillsdale, Michigan and a member of the Health Podcast Network. Our host is JJ Hodshire, our producer is Kyrsten Newlon, and our audio engineer is Kenji Ulmer. Special thanks to our special guests for sharing their expertise on the show, and also to the Hillsdale Hospital marketing team. If you want to submit a question for us to answer on the podcast or learn more about Rural Health Today, visit ruralhealthtoday.com.