Rural Healthcare: Keeping Access to Care Depends on Collaboration
By Curt Kubiak, President and CEO
Across Wisconsin and across the country, rural healthcare systems are facing real challenges. Hospital closures, workforce shortages, and rising costs continue to put pressure on providers and the communities that rely on them.
In western Wisconsin alone, two hospitals and nearly 20 clinics have closed in recent years, forcing patients to travel farther for care and placing additional strain on remaining providers.
The Reality Facing Rural Providers
Rural healthcare organizations often serve older populations with higher rates of chronic disease while operating with smaller patient volumes and tighter financial margins. Recruiting and retaining clinicians can be difficult, and investments in technology and facilities are often challenging to sustain.
At the same time, rural providers are often among the largest employers in their communities and play a critical role in supporting local economic growth and quality of life.
The good news is that preserving access to care in rural communities is possible with collaboration.
Sauk Prairie Healthcare and Reedsburg Area Medical Center are two Wisconsin healthcare organizations proving that providing high-value healthcare is possible in rural communities.
Sauk Prairie Healthcare: Leading Through Innovation
Sauk Prairie Healthcare, serving more than 45,000 patients in south-central Wisconsin, has established itself as a regional leader in affordability, transparency, and value-based care.
One of the ways they’ve differentiated themselves is through a willingness to embrace innovative payment models. Sauk Prairie Healthcare has implemented bundled pricing for dozens of common procedures, giving patients and employers greater certainty around the total cost of care before services are delivered.
Sauk Prairie Healthcare applies many of those same principles to its own workforce. Using tiered network strategies, an onsite pharmacy, and robust wellness programs, the organization actively works to improve access to high-value care while helping manage healthcare costs for employees and their families.
Reedsburg Area Medical Center: Keeping Care Local
For more than 120 years, Reedsburg Area Medical Center has been a trusted healthcare provider for its community.
When leadership recognized that some patients were leaving the area in search of lower-cost care, they chose to address the issue head-on. The organization developed bundled pricing for more than 25 services, helping make care more affordable and predictable and keeping care local whenever possible.
Reedsburg Area Medical Center’s employee health plan reflects its commitment to affordability not only for patients, but for its own workforce. By investing in high-value healthcare options and thoughtful benefit design, the organization is reinforcing the same principles of transparency, accessibility, and value that guide its broader mission.
Beyond healthcare services, Reedsburg Area Medical Center remains deeply invested in community wellness through fitness classes, wellness groups, childbirth education, tobacco cessation programs, farmers markets, and other initiatives that support healthier lifestyles.
A Model for Rural Healthcare
What stands out to me about both Sauk Prairie Healthcare and Reedsburg Area Medical Center is their willingness to challenge traditional thinking.
Rather than viewing rising healthcare costs as something beyond their influence, they have actively pursued strategies that improve value for employers, patients, and their communities.”
Instead of viewing employers as separate from healthcare delivery, they have aligned their employee health plans with their broader commitment to delivering high-value healthcare. And rather than competing in isolation, they have embraced partnerships that strengthen their communities.
These are exactly the kinds of innovative, collaborative approaches that advance rural healthcare.
Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative
One organization that gives me optimism about the future of rural healthcare is the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative (RWHC).
For more than 40 years, RWHC has shown the power of collaboration. Owned by 44 nonprofit rural hospitals, the cooperative helps providers work together to address shared challenges, from workforce shortages and regulatory barriers to healthcare affordability and access.
Beyond advocacy, RWHC provides shared services that help rural hospitals improve efficiency, strengthen operations, and continue serving their communities. Its work demonstrates an important lesson: no single organization can solve rural healthcare’s challenges alone.
Collaboration is the Path Forward
Across Wisconsin, we’re already seeing examples of what is possible when healthcare organizations think and act differently. The challenge now is scaling those successes so more communities can benefit.
The future of rural healthcare won’t be determined by any single provider, employer, or policymaker. It will be shaped by our collective willingness to collaborate and innovate to drive focus on long-term value.
By working together, we can help ensure rural communities continue to thrive, and that access to care remains a cornerstone of life in rural Wisconsin.
What role do you think employers and community healthcare organizations should play in preserving access to care in rural Wisconsin? Reach out at OnWisconsinHealthcare@the-alliance.org.
Curt Kubiak is the President and CEO of The Alliance, a non-for-profit cooperative that helps employers save money on their healthcare spend. After an early career in the manufacturing sector, Kubiak has spent nearly two decades as an executive in the healthcare industry in Wisconsin.
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