News 

The Burden of Physician Turnover in 11 numbers

The potential cost for filling a physician position can top $500,000 when accounting for loss in potential billings and the money needed to recruit to that position, according to a March 4 AMN Healthcare white paper.
​Article Here

Improving access to maternity care in Iowa’s health care deserts​

The U.S. has the highest maternal death rate among high-income countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And with a surge of labor-and-delivery unit closures across the country, it is getting even harder for women to access high-quality maternity care—particularly in rural areas where these closures are most prevalent. In Iowa, for instance, there are 3.3 ob-gyns per 10,000 women of reproductive age. This is compared to 4.5 ob-gyns for the same number of women in the U.S.​

Critical Access Hospitals like VDMC play a vital role in Iowa

Critical Access Hospitals like Van Diest Medical Center, are vital lifelines to their communities. They often tailor services to address specific health concerns or unmet health needs in their rural communities as well. Thus, residents who may otherwise face significant travel time to access medical care can find it close to home. Hospitals serve as economic engines in their communities, often being amongst the largest employers in their area. They also offer community benefits in the form of charity care and free and reduced-cost services. Many of these services wouldn’t exist without hospital resources and leadership.

UI stands to lose $5M in revenue under bill prioritizing Iowans' medical school admission

The University of Iowa's medical and dentistry schools would stand to lose more than $5 million in estimated revenue over the next several years under a bill aimed at recruiting more state residents in the medical fields, according to a recent analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency.​

12 MercyOne Nurses Recognized as 2025 Outstanding Iowa Nurses

MercyOne proudly announces that 12 of our nurses from our owned and managed medical centers are among the 109 Iowa nurses recognized as 2025 Great Iowa Nurses.

Why WVU Medicine gives future nurses up to $25,000

Becker’s connected with Dr. Huffman, assistant vice president of system nursing services, to discuss the health system’s Aspiring Nurse Program. The program offers student nurses up to $25,000 in cash, one-on-one mentorship and clinical rounding sites in exchange for a three-year work agreement at the 25-hospital system.  ​

Millions in US Live in Places Where Doctors Don’t Practice and Telehealth Doesn’t Reach

Many rural Americans face significant healthcare and internet access gaps, making it difficult to receive essential medical care. An analysis by KFF Health News found that nearly 3 million Americans live sicker, shorter lives in the hundreds of rural counties where doctor shortages are the worst and poor internet connections mean little or no access to telehealth services. These gaps disproportionately impact rural Black communities, particularly in the South and Appalachia, where chronic illness rates are high.​

Retired Doctors Step Up in the Face of a Rural Health Care Crisis

With a projected shortage of 86,000 physicians by 2036, rural areas are feeling the strain. Retired doctors, like Dr. Jeff Chappell in Utah and Dr. Douglas DeLong in New York, are returning to practice part-time to help fill the gap. These physicians highlight the unique challenges of rural healthcare—long distances to hospitals, aging patient populations, and fewer medical resources—but also the deep community ties that make rural practice fulfilling. Efforts are underway to encourage young doctors to consider rural medicine as a career path, ensuring continued access to care in these underserved areas.​

New National Organization Advocates Mobile Healthcare as Key for Rural Areas

A new advocacy group, Driving Health Forward, is exploring what mobile medical solutions could address gaps in rural health care access. Mobile health clinics can bridge together clinics and telehealth operations, seeking to become a long-term solution to health care access barriers and hospital closures in rural communities. While the group is just getting started, it is determined to provide the services rural communities need by assessing what gaps these mobile clinics can fill.​

States ranked by potential coverage losses under Medicaid work requirements

Approximately five million adults across the country could lose Medicaid coverage next year under a possible federal mandate requiring adults aged 19 to 55 in Medicaid expansion states to work. At least 10,000 adults in nearly every expansion state could lose coverage, with the largest losses occurring in the most populous states.

The state of the physician workforce in 2025

Physicians are facing a number of changes and challenges in 2025 — with some good news about burnout rates, some bad news around aging physicians and some surprising shifts in the physician workforce makeup.

What’s retaining Gen Z healthcare workers?

Amid ongoing staffing shortages and shifting workforce demographics, hospitals and health systems are honing recruitment and retention strategies tailored to their employees’ needs. Generation Z employees are no exception.​Article

Announcements

Office of Recovery Services 2025 Community Feedback Survey

The Iowa Office of Recovery Services is currently gathering input from peers, loved ones, and providers through a survey focused on their experiences accessing behavioral health services over the past year. These insights help shape peer-driven policy and systems recommendations for Iowa's behavioral health system. The survey should take less than 15 minutes, and the results are anonymous. Reach out to [email protected] with any questions.​

Information for Current & Future Health Professionals

Our New York Health Careers website is a robust resource for individuals interested in a career in healthcare—whether they are just starting out or already working in healthcare and looking to advance or change professions. Visit our enhanced website to find:
Visit our enhanced website to find:
Detailed Information on Over 60 Health Professions 
  • Overview and salary
  • Educational and licensure requirements
  • Educational programs in New York
Guidance on Factors to Consider
  • Admission requirements
  • Accreditation
  • Educational costs
  • Length and style of study
  • Graduation and work requirements
Helpful Resources 
  • Holland Code matching tool
  • Glossary of educational terms
  • Health workforce reports
  • How to address stress and burnout
  • Links to career advisement and tuition reimbursement information 

Invitation to an important virtual event hosted in partnership with the American Institute of Dental Public Health

May 13, 2025 at 1:00 PM CT
 Learn from experts, share your insights, and earn one CEU! As oral health professionals, we understand the critical role oral health plays in overall well-being. This event is a unique opportunity to delve into the specific needs and challenges faced by our veteran community in Iowa.​

Apply to National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Loan Repayment Program

The FY 2025 NHSC Loan Repayment Program Application is open through Thursday, May 1, 2025. Start your application
  • If you do not have one, create a My BHW account.
  • If you have a My BHW account, once logged in select NHSC Loan Repayment Program.
  • The application includes screening questions to assist applicants in determining the program for which they are eligible to apply.

National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program​

Application closes May 1 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
 Medical, dental, and nursing students interested in practicing in high-need communities are eligible to receive payment for tuition, fees and other educational costs as well as a stipend for living costs. After completion of their health professions program and any approved postgraduate training, providers serve at least two years at NHSC-approved sites in high-need rural, urban, and tribal communities. Funding is available for up to four years.
More Information

FIND Project: Dental Education Loan Repayment

The Fulfilling Iowa's Need for Dentists (FIND) Project is a state and local collaboration to recruit and retain dentists in private practice settings in rural, underserved areas in Iowa. The project includes dental education debt repayment through the Delta Dental of Iowa (DDIA) loan repayment program. Loan repayment includes two levels of funding based on county designation. Note: Every Iowa county is eligible for the program; however, preference will be given to dentists in a high-priority or priority county. 
  • Up to $200,000 over a 5-year period for a dentist serving in a high-priority county
  • Up to $125,000 over a 5-year period for a dentist serving in a priority or non-designated county
In return for the loan repayment award, the selected dentist agrees to allocate 35% of patient visits to underserved populations, including a minimum of 15% Medicaid-insured patients.
More Information

Healthcare Workforce Summit ​

May 14, 2025 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM (CDT)
Iowa Hospital Association
100 Grand Avenue, Suite 100
Des Moines, IA 50309
The Iowa Healthcare Workforce Summit will bring together key stakeholders in Iowa's healthcare field for a collaborative, one-day event aimed at developing actionable solutions to address the healthcare workforce shortage. Participants will leave with concrete strategies for their organizations and a shared consensus on necessary actions to tackle the issue. A report showing the voted top overarching themes will be provided after the event.
​Register
Handout

Tools & Resources

State Health Improvement Plan Updates

In May, we published an updated State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP). This version includes finer details such as goals, objectives and strategies for each priority area – all of which were developed and/or chosen by the Healthy Iowans Steering Committee and Workgroups. To go with the updated plan, we also shared a SHIP Summary and a guide on how to use the SHIP, providing valuable resources for its implementation.

Partners in Action: Health Improvement Strategies Throughout Iowa

At the end of 2024, we began the process of transitioning our Partners in Action component of the SHIP into an interactive, online tool for partners to use. As part of this update, we also did a quality check of the information to ensure that it was up-to-date and organized in a way that is most beneficial to users. Based on partner feedback, Partners in Action is now organized by strategy name rather than by organization name.​

Is retaining HPSA Physicians about satisfaction with the jobs or their communities?

This webinar used PRISM data to test how physicians’ satisfaction with various aspects of their work and communities predicts whether they anticipate still to be working in their HPSA practices in four years, and to test if these predictions are the same for physicians in urban HPSAs and rural HPSAs.

FORHP Rural Hospital Technical Assistance Finder

In collaboration with RHIhub, FORHP recently released a new tool to help rural hospitals and rural health clinics identify FORHP programs that provide free technical assistance to improve financial and operational performance, quality, and transition to value-based care.

Publications

U.S. Nursing Workforce by the Numbers

NCSBN — the world leader in nursing regulatory knowledge and advancement — released its 2024 National Nursing Workforce Study, surveying 800,000 nurses to understand the state of the workforce. The study is considered to be the largest and most comprehensive research study of the nursing workforce, uncovering the data points which have far reaching implications for the health care system at large and for patient populations.

Creating Change Together: Delta Dental Annual Report

Delta Dental of Iowa is committed to improving lives by supporting the health and well-being of the people we serve, and that commitment extends far beyond the insurance benefits we provide. We invite you to learn more about the impact Delta Dental is having on health and wellness in Iowa. Whether you’re a member, provider, business partner or team member, you make a difference — because it takes all of us working together to create meaningful change.

Many rural patients drive an hour or more for surgery, study finds​

Timely access to health care services is increasingly threatened for rural residents, with 151 rural hospitals closing between 2010 and 2024.1,2 Compared with nonprocedural services, provision of surgical care faces unique ongoing challenges related to the workforce, resources, and centralization of procedures.3 Although cross-sectional evaluations of travel disparities in obtaining surgical care for rural vs urban patients have been described,4 trends over time and in the recent context of emerging resource constraints in rural settings are unknown. This study quantified changes in travel times for rural patients undergoing surgical care.​

Healthcare News of Note: U.S. will be short 3.2 million lower-wage healthcare workers within 5 years, says Mercer

The main findings of the 2021 study can be summarized into four key points:
  1. A shortage of labor at the low end of the wage spectrum will limit access to home care.
  2. Primary care will increasingly be provided by non-physicians.
  3. There will be surpluses of nursing talent in some areas of the south and southwest and shortages elsewhere.
  4. A six-figure hiring rush for mental health providers will emerge by 2026.

Health Funding Across Agencies: Rural Health​

The Coalition of Health Funding (CHF) released their new Rural Health one-pager. The one-pager focuses on the interagency collaborations that help provide funding and access to rural healthcare. 

State of the Behavioral Health Workforce, 2024

This report provides an overview of the current behavioral health workforce supply and distribution in the United States as well as factors impacting the workforce and access to behavioral health care services.

Training a rural oral health workforce: Effects of rural background on dentist practice choice​

This study assesses outcomes of the first 10 years of the RIDE program. The hypothesis tested is that rural background is the most important predictor of long-term rural dental practice.​

The demographics, training, and job functions of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps nursing workforce​

 For this cross-sectional study, we conducted an online survey with nurse officers in the U.S. Public Health Service to describe the demographics and experience of this workforce and to test job function and activity questions.

Rising Rural Mortality Rates from Natural Causes for Working-Age Adults Lead to Widening Gap with Urban Counterparts

The gap between rural and urban mortality rates from natural causes is widening.  This growing disparity reflects both an improvement in urban health and a decline in rural health, which could have negative implications for rural families, communities, employment, and the rural economy.​

NCHS Urban-Rural Classification Scheme for Counties​

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has developed a six-level urban-rural classification scheme for U.S. counties and other jurisdictions that are the equivalent of counties in their area.