Category Archives: Healthcare

EVENT Feb 18: MN Broadband Task Force February meeting – Rural Health Research

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From the Office of Broadband Development…

Agenda: Broadband Task Force, February Meeting

Date: 2/18/2026

Join the meeting now.

  • Meeting ID and Pass Code: 226 514 117 478 07 and mi9iF756
  • Dial in by phone: +1 651-395-7448,,802366705# Phone conference ID: 802 366 705#
  • Join on a video conferencing device: mn@m.webex.com Video ID: 114 382 750 2

Meeting Agenda

10:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.

Welcome from Teddy Bekele, Chair, Minnesota Governor’s Task Force on Broadband and approval of minutes from January Task Force meeting.

10:15 a.m. – 10:55 a.m.

Rural Health Research: Understanding Digital Access to Improve Community Health with Tabetha Brockman, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Program Manager, Mayo Clinic Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCaTS) Rural Health Research Core and Ilaya Rome Hopkins, Community Engagement Coordinator, MCCCC & CCaTS Rural Health Research Core.

10:55 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.

Office of Broadband Development (OBD) overview and updates from Bree Maki (Executive Director, OBD).

11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Open the floor to other business, no meeting in March, and meeting wrap-up.

Success of Mobile Health in State Rural Health Transformation Plans, including MN

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Georgetown University reports on Mobile Health in State Rural Health Transformation Plans…

Hundreds of rural hospitals across the country are operating on thin margins, and recent federal policy proposals threaten to exacerbate that strain. Provisions in H.R. 1 are projected to reduce federal funding to hospitals and other providers by more than $1 trillion, putting many rural facilities at risk of service reductions or closure. In an attempt to mitigate some of these challenges, H.R. 1 established the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), allocating $10 billion annually over five years to assist states in modernizing rural health care infrastructure, expanding access to care, and improving patient outcomes.

Minnesota is mentioned…

Our research indicates that mobile health models can expand access to care in rural communities by reaching populations facing geographic and broadband barriers. Mobile health care can increase preventive care, support chronic disease management, and link patients to follow-up care. For instance, a program in rural Minnesota launched a mobile-telehealth hybrid model, allowing patients to avoid 30–60 mile trips for primary care.

Patients frequently report high satisfaction with the convenience and quality of mobile health services in rural areas. Some programs are also associated with reduced emergency department use and potential system-level cost efficiencies. For example, a rural South Carolina community paramedicine program helped patients lower their blood pressure and blood glucose levels while also reducing emergency department visits.

The sustainability of mobile health programs often depends on stable funding, strong community partnerships, and referral networks that allow mobile services to act as a gateway to additional care.

Minnesota’s Minnesota Rural Health Transformation is held up as a standout…

Minnesota stands out for its integration with Tribal health organizations and its focus on dental and primary care. Mobile medical and dental units provide preventive screenings, basic primary care, restorative dental services, and lab work, while telehealth links patients to specialty care. The state also positions mobile units as extensions of FQHCs and community clinics, embedding care within existing referral networks and using community sites such as schools for service delivery and workforce training.

Minnesota’s RHTP application and press release.

They are also hosting a virtual discussion on how state policymakers can better support mobile health clinics and improve access to care at 1pm ET on February 13. Register here.

Minnesota awarded almost all of requested $200M federal grant to boost rural health care

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The Minnesota Star Tribune reports…

Fearing political reprisals from President Donald Trump’s administration, Minnesota leaders were relieved late last month when they received almost all of the $200 million in federal grants they requested to boost rural health care in the state in 2026.

Now they have precious few months to invest the $193 million in areas such as telehealth and rural training and show progress before the 2027 funding application deadline hits this summer. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is adjusting its health goals based on the actual award and soon will court hospitals, clinics, public health agencies and tribes to use the money and prove it makes a difference.

2025 Minnesota Rural Health Policy Summit Report: no mention of broadband

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The 2025 Minnesota Rural Health Policy Summit Report looks at five policy priority area definitions

  • Access: Ensuring all Minnesotans—regardless of geography—can obtain timely, affordable, and individually appropriate care.
  • Funding: Advocate for sustainable and equitable funding models that reflect the unique needs of rural providers and communities.
  • Innovation: Promoting rural-centered innovation in care delivery, technology, and community partnerships to ensure sustainability.
  • Regulation: Supporting regulatory frameworks that protect patient safety and reduce administrative burdens that build flexible rural health systems.
  • Workforce: Strengthening the rural health workforce by expanding education pathways, incentivizing rural practice, and embracing community-rooted solutions

I was expecting “access” to discussion access to broadband with an eye toward using telehealth. It didn’t. I don’t have a lot more to say about that, except that broadband – and telehealth – weren’t hot topics.

The exception was a mention of remote access under the umbrella of innovation…

Policy solutions focused on payment or incentive solutions that focus on prevention, address specific needs, or provide specific services, have controls for security, and means to monitor outcomes. The group emphasized that innovations should integrate environmental impacts. Policy suggestions include making the virtual visits telehealth extender permanent and aligning payments for virtual visit models with in-person visit models.

The extension of funding will help those who can access online visits but still leaves out those without adequate broadband.

EVENT April 7-9: Telehealth Everywhere 2026

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From the Midwest Telehealth Edition…

TELEHEALTH EVERYWHERE! is a regional telehealth conference for executives, providers, managers, staff engaged in the delivery of telehealth services.

April 7, – 9, 2026

Hyatt Regency at the Mall of America 3200 East 81st Street
Bloomington, MN 55425 United States

Hubbard County Veterans Service Officer telehealth program was nominated for two awards

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The Park Rapids Enterprise reports…

“Bjerke is the embodiment of ‘service over self’ and brings that level of commitment to his job every day, serving veterans,” wrote Hubbard County Administrator Jeff Cadwell.

The VSO’s Accessing Telehealth through Local Area Stations program was nominated for the AMC Outstanding County Achievement Award.

“The VSO jumped at the chance to create this unique service for area veterans. Assistant VSO Aaron Majors was instrumental in navigating the project’s requirements to get this service up and running,” Cadwell reported. “While not chosen for the awards for which they were nominated, we thank them, their entire department, and their dedicated volunteers, for their sacrifice and commitment to our country and to Hubbard County.”

Fewer headaches thanks to telehealth resources for Deer River students

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KAXE reports…

For some Deer River students, seeing the doctor means a full day out of school.

“Most of it is transportation and getting up to Cass Lake for an appointment, if they have one,” explained district employee Susan Nelson. “And that can be an all-day affair. You’re 60 miles up and 60 miles down.”

The Deer River Public Schools district overlaps with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Reservation, including the communities of Ball Club and Inger, and Nelson said almost of half of Deer River students are Native American. Many are covered by the Indian Health Service, meaning getting care can present a significant travel burden.

There’s an Essentia Health clinic and hospital just a mile from Deer River High School, which can make appointments easy for some families. But even then, parents and guardians still have to take time away from work to get their kids to appointments — another barrier to health care.

A new program is trying to address those challenges with just an iPad and a quiet room.

Deer River launched its telehealth program with help from Essentia in October. Nelson is the project manager.

The process itself is pretty straightforward. On the iPad, Nelson has set up video conferencing apps like Microsoft Teams and Zoom and health care programs like MyChart.

If a student has an appointment, they log in on the iPad, which they can connect to a TV if they’d like. Then Nelson steps out of the room — which is also her office — until they’re done.

Mental health care is scarce for BIPOC residents in rural MN. Telehealth can help

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KAXE reports…

Finding a mental health provider in rural areas is hard but Minnesota researchers said it is much harder for communities of color in small towns and a new report laid out specific obstacles to care and solutions showing hope.

The Center for Rural Policy and Development said rural communities across the state are becoming more diverse but the center’s latest report showed there is still little awareness about the mental health needs of people of color in these areas. Lack of insurance, stigma, and trust issues are factors complicating the issue.

Marnie Werner, vice president of research and operations at the center, said refugee and immigrant populations also tend to be isolated from their small-town neighbors.

The article offers some solutions…

Recommendations in the report include identifying mentors who can work with students of color, in hopes they will eventually take on mental health care roles in their communities or become school social workers. The report also cited a move by the state Legislature last year to adopt licensure reforms. Backers said it could open more career pathways in the mental health field.

The report talks more about telehealth…

Telehealth can especially help rural people of color access appropriate, effective mental healthcare, says Terica Toliver, Senior Director of Clinical Therapy at Louisiana-based Iris Telehealth, which provides therapy via telehealth through her contract with ElevaCare in Southwest Minnesota. Telehealth gives people of color a broader range of providers to choose from, including providers who share the same racial and cultural backgrounds.

It’s not a perfect solution, however. Hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans don’t have access to the broadband internet service required for telehealth to work reliably,[26] and telehealth isn’t for everyone. Some patients simply don’t feel comfortable talking to a stranger about their mental health on a digital screen.

Report indicates issues with rural healthcare in rural MN – telehealth his not bridging the gap

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The Timberjay reports…

Rural Minnesota is aging more rapidly than the rest of the state, and northern St. Louis County is part of that trend. Older adults already make up a growing share of the population, outnumbering children in many rural communities. The 2025 Minnesota Rural Health Care Chartbook, released Monday by the Minnesota Department of Health, outlines how that demographic shift is colliding with signs of strain across the rural health care system.

One of the clearest indicators is in emergency medical services. Minnesota saw a net loss of 542 EMS certifications last year, MDH reported, a decline that is being felt most sharply in rural areas. Small departments often have a limited number of responders, so even one or two departures can reduce coverage and extend response times. The trend arrives as the region’s population grows older, increasing the number of medical calls that depend on a prompt EMS response.
That context matters when looking at the report’s findings on stroke care. MDH notes that access to stroke-capable hospitals has improved substantially, with roughly 84 percent of rural residents now living within a 30-minute drive of a designated facility. The expanded hospital readiness is a clear gain, but its effectiveness hinges on the first link in the chain. Without adequate EMS staffing to reach patients quickly, the benefit of having more stroke-ready hospitals within driving distance becomes harder to realize.

Telehealth is mentioned as a possible solution that isn’t living up to potential…

Telehealth, which expanded rapidly during the early years of the pandemic, has not filled the gap as broadly in rural Minnesota as hoped. MDH notes that rural residents used telehealth at lower rates than urban residents over the past year. While the report estimates that around one in ten rural Minnesotans lacks adequate broadband for video visits, the experience within northern St. Louis County suggests the number may be higher in some areas. Broadband access remains inconsistent, and in locations where fiber has not reached, video-based care can be unreliable. The variation limits the effectiveness of telehealth as a substitute for in-person services.

Minnesota applies for $1B in rural health care funds to offset Medicaid cuts especially in rural MN

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I wrote about the $1 billion application earlier; MPR News takes a deeper look…

Minnesota has applied for a share of $50 billion in federal funding for rural health care that was approved by Congress as part of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The Minnesota Department of Health applied for $1 billion over five years. Its 62-page application lays out detailed plans for the funds, including fellowships aimed at getting more medical students training and working in rural areas, adding more telehealth opportunities and providing more preventative care screenings in local venues, such as schools, pharmacies and tribal clinics.

It is in reaction to losing funds in other places…

The Minnesota Hospital Association estimates that the state could lose $2.4 billion in federal health care funding in the first year alone, fiscal year 2028. The MHA also finds that 140,000 Minnesotans on Medicaid could lose their healthcare coverage while another 60,000 Minnesotans will likely drop their ACA health insurance because of the rising costs.

It sounds like the impact could be harder felt in rural Minnesota…

About 30 percent of Minnesotans live in rural areas of the state, where the health care system has been severely strained in recent years.

There’s a shortage of physicians, nurses and other medical professionals, and the number of rural medical clinics and hospitals closing is on the rise. The MDH wrote in its application for the Rural Health Transformation Program funding that 34 out of Minnesota’s 95 rural hospitals are financially distressed, which means they’ve had four or more years of negative operating margins in the past eight years. Just this year, Mayo Clinic Health System announced it was closing six rural clinics in southeast Minnesota.

According to the application, Minnesota’s rural residents on average must travel 64 minutes for medical-surgical care, whereas people in the state’s urban areas travel just 19 minutes on average for care.

Research show that seniors are least apt to use telehealth as assisted living residents followed by nursing home

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McKnight Senior Living reports…

Residents of assisted living communities and nursing homes have significantly lower odds of using telehealth compared with older adults who use long-term services and supports and live in the community at large, according to a new study. But assisted living residents were more likely to use it than were nursing home residents.

I thought this was interesting because I might have assumed the opposite but…

The study, led by researchers from Indiana University Bloomington and the University of Minnesota, shows that although telehealth offers a promising strategy for improving access to care and health outcomes, where an older adult lives will affect their odds of using it. The findings were published Tuesday in a JAMDA – The Journal of the Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medical Association article in press.

Using data from almost 7,000 participants in the 2021-2022 National Core Indicators-Aging and Disabilities Adult Consumer Survey for LTSS, the researchers found that assisted living residents had 20% lower odds of using telehealth, and nursing home residents had 63% lower odds of using it, compared with their community-dwelling counterparts. Nursing home residents had 54% lower odds of using telehealth than did assisted living residents.

The findings, the authors said, highlight a disparity in telehealth access and delivery across various LTSS settings. The lower use in assisted living communities and nursing homes, they said, may reflect differences in infrastructure, staffing and resident autonomy.

MN schools experience speech pathologist shortage – but telehealth could help

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KSTP Channel 5 reports…

There is a shortage of speech-language pathologists across the country and in Minnesota.

According to the National Institutes of Health, 1 in 14 kids has had a communication disorder in the past year. The University of Minnesota says it’s working on creative solutions to address the issue.

“It’s really improved his quality of life,” Jessica Weiche said. Her son, 8-year-old Everett Weiche, has been in therapy with a speech-language pathologist since he was a baby and sees an SLP every week at his elementary school in Plymouth.

Emily Aust, president of the Minnesota Speech-Language Hearing Association, said there are districts in Minnesota with openings for SLPs.

And they talk about telehealth as part of the solution…

Becky Ludewig Lulai, director of clinical programs in speech-language pathology at the U of M, said they’re launching telehealth programs in two rural Minnesota school districts.

They have also structured their program to get more graduate students out in schools.

“We have 30 students each getting three external rotations in our programs,” Lulai said.

Communication is essential in school, and students like Everett continue to build on it.

Minnesota applies for $1 billion for health care support including telehealth

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The Minnesota Star Tribune reports…

A $1 billion grant to improve rural health care won’t offset the much bigger losses from looming cuts to the federal Medicaid health program, but Minnesota wasn’t going to miss out on its chance for the money.

The state completed its application on time last week for the rural health transformation funding, which President Donald Trump’s administration and congressional Republicans offered to soften the blow of Medicaid cuts. Wisconsin similarly announced its appeal for funding.

“This is a lot of money,” said Diane Rydrych, health policy director for the Minnesota Department of Health. “It’s really significant for Minnesota if we get this grant, but it’s also a really tough time. It’s not going to be sufficient funding to address all needs.”

Next up: an unsettling wait. Minnesota should find out in the next month if it will receive its share.

Each state applied for $200 million per year for five years, but the actual amount could vary. Some have worried Republican-led states could have an advantage, given Trump’s rhetoric against Democrats and actions in Democrat-led cities and states, such as military deployments and immigration crackdowns.

Sonds as if the funding could be used for telehealth…

Other goals in the next five years include an increase in telehealth medical appointments and a 10% reduction in rural Minnesotans who return to hospitals with avoidable problems. Essentia Health employs paramedics who visit with patients and help prevent their hospital readmissions, though it has made cuts to the program.

The federal government billed the funding as one-time support for five years, so Rydrych said the state focused its application on up-front investments that could pay off after the money runs dry. Technology upgrades to boost telemedicine visits were one example.

Government shutdown disrupts telehealth at Winona Health

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WXOW reports…

The federal government shutdown is creating new challenges for Winona Health patients who rely on telehealth.

Winona Health officials say the number of people affected is small, but Medicare patients are feeling the change. Some visits that had been conducted virtually must now happen in person.

Hospice care is also impacted. Certain recertification visits that were allowed over telehealth will now require face-to-face appointments.

Administrators say they expect telehealth options to return once Congress resolves the budget impasse.

Mayo Clinic is closing six locations, locals worry about lack of broadband impeding telehealth alternatives

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Explore Okoboji reports…

Mayo Clinic is closing six locations in Southern Minnesota. Montgomery, Belle Plaine, Wells, Caledonia, North Mankato, and Saint Peter will all lose clinics. The Mayo Clinic Health System said in a statement it plans to consolidate clinic services, but locals worry about a lack of access. Montgomery City Administrator Brian Heck said rural Minnesota does not have robust broadband and not every patient is able to use virtual care. The six clinics will close on December 10th.