The Future of Rural Healthcare: Key Trends and Predictions for 2025
Rural healthcare plays a crucial role in ensuring the well-being of nearly 61 million Americans living in rural and remote areas. According to the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH), rural America comprises roughly 2,200 CAHs (Critical Access Hospitals), other rural hospitals, and over 11,400 Rural Health Clinics and other rural health centers.1 Yet, it faces challenges ranging from workforce shortages to financial hurdles and keeping up with technology. Understanding these issues and anticipating future changes are essential to building sustainable solutions. This article explores the current state of rural healthcare, key trends shaping its future, and what you can expect in 2025 while offering actionable insights for rural healthcare leaders.
The Evolving Landscape of Rural Healthcare
Before we take an in-depth look into solutions and predictions, we must address some of the most significant issues rural healthcare leaders face.
Increased Demand Due to Aging Population
In the United States, rural areas are aging faster than their urban counterparts. More rural residents are over 65, driving up demand for medical services. To residents in rural areas, healthcare services should be obtainable and available in a timely manner, including patients having the financial means to pay for services, transportation to access services, the ability to communicate their needs with healthcare providers, privacy protection, and the confidence of receiving quality care.2 Rural healthcare organizations must scale their services to serve this growing population effectively.
Higher Rates of Chronic Disease
Chronic diseases are more prevalent in rural communities. Conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease are widespread, often due to limited access to preventive care. Those living in rural areas are likely to have higher rates of cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, and obesity.3 Addressing this requires a focus on both education and early intervention.
Disparities in Access to Care
Rural residents often travel long distances for basic medical services. Limited specialist availability and hospital closures worsen the problem.4 Rural residents are also more likely to delay care, especially those living in poverty or who don’t have health insurance, exacerbating health issues. Broadband shortages also hinder telehealth expansion, delaying remote care adoption. This lack of access can result in poorer health outcomes.
Social Determinants of Healthcare Access
Within the rural and remote healthcare landscape are designated RTGI (rural, Tribal, or geographically isolated) communities. One in five Americans reside in one of these communities. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), “geographic barriers limiting access to services, resources, and opportunities can be further magnified for individuals with low incomes and for people of color, resulting in a complex intersection of place, class, and race.”5
These aren’t the only reasons people may forego care, though. Patients cited poor experiences as a reason for distrust and skipping care.6 This lack of trust also feeds into technology. Healthcare consumers are concerned about generative AI and how it can be negatively used to make decisions about their care, as well as how their personal data is being used.
Workforce Shortages
It’s nearly impossible to discuss trends in healthcare without addressing the prevalence of workforce shortages within the industry. Retaining healthcare providers long-term in rural and remote locations can be challenging. Modern Healthcare cites that 90% of rural health systems reported labor shortages last year.7 However, higher wages, significant benefit programs, and proactive recruiting give some healthcare leaders hope, with 35% reporting that their workforce has increased since 2023.
Recruiting healthcare professionals is also a big lift for rural healthcare organizations. The available pool of providers is typically smaller, so they often have to go outside their geographical area to find qualified candidates. Healthcare providers may be wary of the geographic isolation and the potential for limited resources often found in rural and remote areas.
Financial Pressures
Rural hospitals often face financial instability and revenue concerns. Rural health systems may struggle to increase revenue, particularly as many have already reduced costs as much as possible. Many rural health organizations report their operating margins falling short of expectations.6
Key Trends and Predictions for 2025
A Focus on Growth
Leaders in rural health will need to take a multidimensional approach to boost overall revenue, including focusing on organic growth vs. mergers and acquisitions. In responses to a Deloitte survey, they state, “To attract new consumers and drive organic growth, half of health plan executives and 55% of health system executives agree they need to improve consumer engagement, trust, and the overall consumer experience.”6 Additionally, improving the patient experience could become more crucial than ever. Healthcare facilities need to gain and keep the trust of their patients in an ever-evolving digital world.
Since rural and remote healthcare often serves niche populations, catering services to the communities will be important. Expanding health and wellness options may better meet the needs of patients. It will be the job of healthcare leaders to foster a culture of innovation, adaptability, and resilience.
Bringing Affordable Care to the Community
The affordability of healthcare will continue to strain patients opting to move forward with treatment in 2025. As healthcare costs continue to rise, healthcare leaders will need to address out-of-pocket expenses for their patients. Out-of-pocket costs have continued to outpace healthcare spending growth since 2020, which is especially true for women needing care.6
Finding ways to make patient care more convenient can help offset their costs. Facilities may need to offer extended hours, virtual site visits, or alternative sites of care. In some cases, considering school-based clinics or mobile crisis intervention teams (particularly for behavioral health needs) could be a way to bring care to communities, saving them the cost of traveling and helping residents to receive preventative care. Additionally, expanding services that rural populations sometimes need to travel long distances to get, like chemo, radiation, and dialysis, could provide more income for the facility while saving travel costs for patients.
In some areas, a Hospital-at-Home model is being adopted, providing acute level care to patients in their homes.8 Access to healthcare services has been proven to cause better health outcomes among patients, especially in rural and remote areas.9
Digital Transformation and Technology Adoption
Digital usage in healthcare settings will be more prevalent than ever before. Still, it can be more challenging to implement for rural and remote locations due to access limitations and implementation costs. However, some digital tools will be worthwhile to stay ahead of.
Patient Portals
Patient portals can help alleviate administrative burdens on clinics, hospital admins, and healthcare professionals. Giving patients access to the information that’s important for them, like lab results, prescription refills, and easy contact with their healthcare provider, without the need to weigh down human resources, can free up internal staff to focus on other aspects of the patient experience.
While the concept of patient portals isn’t new, healthcare leaders will focus on wider adoption of these systems to help patients with tasks like scheduling appointments, viewing test results, accessing health records, and receiving provider communications.6
Virtual Care
Virtual care options can be highly beneficial to rural populations, as well. Omitting the need to travel for some medical cases, like infectious diseases, primary care visits, or consultations that don’t require an in-person visit, can increase patients showing up for their appointments due to the convenience. Healthcare leaders may consider options like virtual nursing, to enable more remote work possibilities for clinical staff.6
Virtual hospitalist services are helping to address clinician shortages while tackling the need for flexible work options. Additionally virtual hospitalists can help with sustainable staffing, even spreading providers across multiple hospitals, where they would typically only be serving patients at one facility. These types of programs are improving outcomes for patients.10
Technological Security
Healthcare data breaches are on the rise. Investing in the proper security measures will be imperative with any digital tool. Healthcare administrators must prioritize cybersecurity measures to maintain HIPAA compliance and sensitive patient data. Without these measures, patient trust can be lost, brand reputation could be tarnished, and other potential legal issues could occur.6 Additionally, healthcare facilities can face financial and operational risks, furthering the detriment of foregoing security measures.
AI Adoption
We can’t enter 2025 without talking about AI and the effects it is already having on healthcare and will continue to have. For healthcare leaders, AI is typically viewed positively; a tool to help with operational efficiency, diagnostics and imaging, and clinical decision-making.11 AI can make time-consuming administrative tasks (cutting time in half) less burdensome by assisting with note-taking, claims processing, document extraction, accounting tasks, and more. AI can also help to improve tracking, reporting, and monitoring.6 Additionally, predictive analytics or AI can help healthcare leaders to understand how and where to allocate resources efficiently. As AI becomes more prevalent industry-wide, considering the ethical deployment of the technology is important.
In more unique situations, AI is being used in virtual reality for physical therapy recovery. The technology is also being used for virtual physical trainers and therapists.12 While this type of technology isn’t as widespread yet, its implications and adoption in rural and remote areas could benefit the communities that reside there.
Ensuring healthcare practitioners and staff are adequately trained with new tools will allow them to leverage them successfully.
However, considering the patient experience with AI is also important. According to research from Yale Cancer Center, while the overall view of AI is positive, patients still have concerns about the potential for misdiagnosis, privacy breaches, reduced time with clinicians, and increased costs. Dr. Sanjay Aneja says, “Patient education, concerns, and comfort levels should be taken into consideration when planning for integration of AI.”13
Addressing Disparities Through Data
By collecting and standardizing data, health outcomes in rural, tribal, and geographically isolated (RTGI) communities can better identify where disparities exist, including from social determinants of health (SDOH), such as economic instability, educational limitations, and environmental factors.5
Informed decision-making is possible through data transparency. When data is shared and analyzed, organizations can better address quality and access gaps, helping with policy development and interventions. Additionally, healthcare organizations can use data to measure the impact of programs and assess the effectiveness of interventions, ensuring that resources are used efficiently and effectively. For example, CMS has released a report that shows that rural enrollees generally receive lower quality care than the national average. By using data-driven insights, healthcare organizations can ensure that all people, regardless of location, have access to high-quality, affordable care.5
Staffing For Success
Physicians, in particular, are projected to face a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036, according to Staffing Industry Analysts “Locum Tenens Market Growth Assessment: 2024 Update.” A large portion of the physician workforce is nearing retirement, and primary care physicians experience high rates of burnout.14 Rural areas are particularly affected, with 70% of primary care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) located in rural or partially rural regions9. The shortages impact various roles, including behavioral health and emergency medical services5.
Healthcare administrators can deploy multiple strategies to help overcome staffing deficits.
Retain Healthcare Professionals
Some healthcare administrators are successfully hiring and retaining staff through higher wages, benefit programs, and proactive recruiting.7 Supporting workforce wellness is also a high priority to maintain retention, including offering programs to improve health and mental well-being.
Rural nurse practitioners report being more satisfied with their jobs since working in rural areas often allows them to practice medicine utilizing their full scope of practice.1 In many rural organizations, nurse practitioners or physician assistants are employed to help ease the strain of the physician shortage.
When healthcare facilities don’t have enough medical providers and are having difficulty attracting permanent workers, administrators often have to look outward, including working with locum tenens to fill in the gaps and keep continuity of care for their facility.
Encouraging employee feedback and taking action on the results can also help with overall workplace morale, attitude, and mental health.
Consider the Patient Experience
Creating positive patient experiences will be of top importance in 2025. Healthcare organizations may use proven tactics from other industries, like retail and hospitality, to gain insights and strategies for improved customer satisfaction. Initiatives may additionally expand to healthcare organizations developing new health and wellness-focused products tailored to their patient demographics.6 Considering mobile clinics or community-based programs may also be a win for communities, potentially earning additional income for healthcare organizations while making receiving healthcare more equitable within communities.
As previously mentioned, with cost being a deciding factor in patients choosing whether or not to receive care, healthcare administrators will need to tackle common pain points of those needing treatment, including wait times, office hours, and transportation hurdles.6
Implementation of digital tools can also improve the overall patient experience. Patient portals and virtual visit options can help ease patient friction points.
Finding ways to expand service offerings, particularly for specialized services, can also help keep patients close to home when choosing where to receive treatment. Focusing on integrated care through improving the coordination of services for patients can also be beneficial.
Value-based payment models are also becoming more popular, according to CMS.gov. In comparison to volume-based care, better patient care is prioritized. However, implementing this type of care system can be challenging since fewer resources are often found in rural and remote locations.5
Foster Partnerships
Healthcare is a team sport, sometimes requiring healthcare leaders to utilize resources outside of their organization to bring high quality healthcare to their communities. To foster growth in this area, partnering or collaborating with tech companies, educational institutions, and community organizations can bridge gaps in care.
The Role of Government in Healthcare
With a new year comes a new political administration. Understanding the priorities and issues of the new government leaders, as well as keeping track of potential regulatory changes, can help facilities stay ahead. Deloitte recommends keeping tabs on three trends, including:
- Monitoring presidential appointees
- Evaluating legislative control
- Strengthening regulatory strategies
These changes may lead to changes in health policy.6
Government involvement won’t only be necessary at the federal level; collaboration with local leaders and community stakeholders to address healthcare disparities will also be essential in 2025. Organizations like the State Offices of Rural Health, which link federal and state resources to rural and frontier community needs, can assist healthcare leaders in being successful.9
While much uncertainty exists for what will happen to healthcare related to governmental influence, change is on the horizon. How that change will influence decisions in rural and remote healthcare will have to be seen as the year progresses.
Conclusion
As we look toward 2025, the challenges and opportunities within rural healthcare are significant. From addressing workforce shortages to leveraging data and technology for improved patient outcomes, healthcare administrators are tasked with navigating a rapidly evolving landscape. Proactively adapting strategies will help healthcare facilities to thrive, while embracing resilience, innovation, and responsiveness.
Now is the time for healthcare leaders to take proactive steps including a multidimensional approach of investing in innovative technologies, strengthening community partnerships, and advocating for policies that support rural health initiatives. By embracing these trends and preparing for change, administrators can lead their organizations with vision and purpose, creating healthier futures for their patients and communities alike.
How is your organization preparing for the future of rural healthcare? Let us help you find innovative staffing solutions and strategies to meet your goals in 2025 and beyond. Reach out today to learn how we can support your needs.
- https://nosorh.org/2024-nrhd-key-messages-and-data-points/
- https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/healthcare-access
- https://www.cdc.gov/rural-health/php/about/index.html
- https://www.gao.gov/blog/why-health-care-harder-access-rural-america
- https://www.cms.gov/files/document/2024-advancing-health-care-rtgi-communities-year-review.pdf
- https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/health-care/life-sciences-and-health-care-industry-outlooks/2025-us-health-care-executive-outlook.html
- https://www.modernhealthcare.com/people/top-three-priorities-rural-healthcare-organizations-2024
- https://www.aha.org/hospitalathome
- https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/health_equity/health-care-access.htm
- https://shmpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jhm.13380?
- https://www.ft.com/content/2fd63023-ec0a-421c-9abb-b6c8000b3b51
- https://nypost.com/2024/12/21/world-news/israels-war-with-hamas-has-led-to-amazing-medical-innovation/
- https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/how-do-patients-feel-about-using-ai-in-healthcare/
- https://www.staffingindustry.com/research/research-reports/americas/locum-tenens-market-growth-assessment-2024-update