Summary
The conventional wisdom is that rural health is a hard business: an unfavorable payer mix, a challenging labor market, and a higher prevalence of chronic disease. On top of that, KFF estimates that, under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, federal Medicaid spending in rural areas could decrease by $137 billion over 10 years—about $87 billion more than is appropriated for the rural health fund.”
Given the recent influx of attention on rural health from the Rural Health Transformation Program, we thought it would be interesting to talk to the folks at Hopscotch Primary Care who have been working on this problem for longer than most of us have been paying attention to the challenges rural communities face in getting care. We were joined by Tim Gronniger, CEO, and Dr. Aditi Mallick, CMO, to talk about the unique challenges of rural primary care, how they go about recruiting doctors and structuring their care model, and their view on how RHTP funds could be allocated by states.
Check out the conversation below!
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What we covered:
00:00 Introductions and context
00:31 The unique challenges in rural health care
01:37 Hopscotch's approach to primary care
03:50 Rural Health Transformation Program ideas
07:24 Recruiting doctors to rural areas
14:38 How Hopscotch is leveraging AI
20:14 Care model and staffing
25:01 Value-Based payments and capitation
33:15 Scope of practice and licensing challenges
42:12 Where you can find Hopscotch on the internet