Critical Access Hospital Programs
ORH supports training and staff development for Oregon's Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). From quality to leadership, investing in staff and programs improves CAHs' ability to offer high-quality care to their communities. ORH also provides customizable benchmarking tools for MBQIP and HCAHPs reporting, quality and operational improvement training, grant opportunities, scholarships to attend conferences and funding to purchase technology, equipment, or create shared savings programs.
- Critical Access Hospital Community Benefit Reporting Highlights Fiscal Year: 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018
- A Review of Community Benefit Reporting Challenges for Critical Access Hospitals in Oregon (Verité Healthcare Consulting, LLC, 2017)
Please see below for CHA and CHIP requirements for hospitals, local public health and coordinated care organizations. You’ll also find a link to ORH’s CHNA tracking map, which compiles all CAH CHNA’s and maps identified barriers to care, challenges in accessing health care, identified community needs, community strengths and goals and priorities.
Visit the Oregon Rural Health Excellence Award page to learn more.
Rural CAHs Provide Quality Health Care
Every community deserves access to high-quality health care, and Oregon’s CAHs take quality seriously. Throughout rural Oregon, CAHs not only provide care the community needs but strive to ensure that care is of the highest quality. Good Shepherd Health Care System (Hermiston) and Southern Coos Hospital & Health Center (Bandon) are just two great examples of rural hospitals serving their communities with high quality health care.
Webinars for CAHs and Small Hospitals
The Oregon Office of Rural Health (ORH) is pleased to offer educational webinars for Critical Access Hospital (CAH) leadership and staff. Webinar slides and recordings will be posted on this page after each event.
December 16, 2025 | 12 p.m. PT
Creating a Durable Strategic Plan | Register here
In today’s rapidly evolving health care landscape, strategic planning must go beyond the basics to truly drive transformation. Join us as Wipfli explores how high-performing organizations are rethinking their approach—building resilient strategies that align with mission, adapt to change and inspire action. Experts will guide you through examining common pitfalls and the foundational building blocks that set successful plans apart. You’ll learn how leading organizations are integrating patient experience and community engagement into their strategic vision and walk away with actionable tips to craft a more passionate, purpose-driven plan that energizes your team and strengthens your organization’s future.
November 19, 2025
Cost Reporting Basics
Wipfli will provide a focused overview of the key Medicare cost report worksheets for Critical Access Hospitals, ideal for both new users and those who need a refresher. Experts will walk through Worksheets A to E, covering how costs are categorized, allocated and reconciled for reimbursement. The session also includes the M series for Rural Health Clinics (RHCs), highlighting how RHC costs and visits are reported separately. Emphasis is placed on understanding worksheet flow, avoiding common errors and preparing accurate, defensible submissions. We’ll close with a brief Q&A to reinforce core concepts.
November 13, 2025
Safe Medicine Return for Rural Oregon
What do you and/or your patients do with medicine that you no longer need? Did you know that Oregon has a program to ensure people have safe, free ways to dispose of medication?
Since 2021, Oregon’s safe drug disposal program has allowed people to return unwanted or expired medication at drop boxes by picking up prepaid mail-back envelopes or by requesting prepaid mail-back packages online. To find a location near you, click here.
Oregon’s Kitchen Table is partnering with MED-Project to hear from people in Oregon about how the safe medicine disposal program is working for you and what would make it easier and more convenient for you to use.
April 21, 2025
Oregon Critical Access Hospital Compliance Meeting with Oregon Health Authority
The Oregon Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Compliance Meeting, led by Anna Davis, Oregon Health Authority (OHA), Hospital Staffing & Acute Care Regulation Manager, provides Oregon CAHs with information from a surveyor’s perspective to support a better understanding of regulations in the following areas:
• Where most deficiencies are found during survey including new construction and changes in services/locations
• Hospital staffing law clarifications to support compliance including Type A/B hospital variances
• Where to find CAH survey compliance resources
• Supporting maternity services in rural settings
February 27, 2025
Rural Health Cybersecurity: Resources for Resilience
Ransomware attacks increased 130% in health care in just one year, and unfortunately, the risk and impact of cybersecurity breaches in rural hospitals and other care settings continues to climb. Awareness and deployment of available resources to build cyber resilience are vital to patient and information security.
Laura Kreofsky, leader of Microsoft Philanthropies’ Rural Health Tech Program, will discuss the health care cyber landscape, along with artificial intelligence in health care, and how you can take advantage of the free services and product discounts Microsoft is providing to all rural hospitals in partnership with the American Hospital Association and the National Rural Health Association.
2024 CAH Finance and Operations Webinar Slides and Recordings
March 21, 2024
Know Your Value: Regional Collaboration and Competition for Critical Access Hospitals
With the growing perception that rural markets are attractive growth areas for outside (often for-profit) actors, coupled with the continued application of technology in the health care delivery system, hospitals paradoxically face increased competitive risk and new strategic opportunities. This presentation identifies the different types of collaboration with provider organizations and third-party businesses to increase efficiencies and economies of scale while ensuring hospitals are positioned for the future.
April 18, 2024 | 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
Ensuring Long Term Success Today: 2024 Revenue Cycle Strategies
The health care industry pace of change quickens daily and presents new challenges to patient access, service delivery and long-term success. This ongoing transformation creates limitless opportunities with revenue cycle management to advance performance, compliance, quality, satisfaction and retention. This presentation will focus on fundamentals to maximize opportunities in staffing, financial management and partnerships.
May 16, 2024 | 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
Best Practices for CAHs: Budget Process and Budget Building
Creating a budget isn't everyone's idea of fun, but creating a repeatable and annual budget process that involves department and hospital leadership is essential for understanding your current position and where you are heading. A solid budget process allows hospitals to compare actual to budgeted performance on a monthly basis to understand both areas of opportunity (and areas that need attention) and functions as a way to empower department managers.
June 20, 2024 | 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
Interface: How Primary Care and CAH Operations Can Work Together
Hospital and primary care delivery models ideally are symbiotic, efficient and jointly tied to the organization’s mission. CCM, TCM and BHI programs serve as the operational tools to reimburse providers for the implementation of care management and behavioral health services in rural communities. This presentation outlines the optimal delivery system and patient care programs that demonstrate how primary care and hospital operations can be complementary.
July 18, 2024 | 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
Beyond Coexisting: Building a Thriving Relationship Between Finance and Human Resources
Finance and human resource functions often cross into each other's worlds, which, at times, can create friction and confusion. This presentation explores common tripping hazards and small rural hospital-specific best practices for internal controls related to human capital and financing functions.
August 15, 2024 | 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
Behavioral Health: Leveraging RHCs to Expand an Essential Service
Rural communities continue to experience deficits with access to behavioral and mental health services. With changes brought forth in the CY 2022 Physician Fee Schedule, Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) can now provide and receive reimbursement for distant site tele-behavioral health services. This presentation focuses on how to leverage RHCs and their new reimbursement methodology to expand behavioral health services.
2023 CAH Finance and Operations Webinar Slides and Recordings
Feb. 16, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
A Best Practice Checklist: CAH Financial and Operational Performance
In an environment of increasing cost and stagnant reimbursement, CAHs must do everything necessary to improve their financial stability. This presentation identifies a small but focused set of tactics CAHs can implement to improve their financial and operational performance.
Video | Presentation slides
Mar. 9, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
A Systems Approach: Maintaining a High Functioning Revenue Cycle Department
The revenue cycle remains one of the best opportunities for hospitals to improve operational efficiencies due to its complexity and core function. This presentation walks participants through the full revenue cycle value chain while identifying common pitfalls that impact revenue.
Video | Presentation slides
Mar. 30, 12 p.m. - 1: p.m.
PIEC 101: Transitioning to a Performance Improvement Executive Committee
Most health care organizations maintain a siloed management and monitoring structure that isolates finance, quality, and staff. This presentation explores the concept of a performance improvement executive committee and identifies a specific organizational model to remove silos, promote and express interdependencies, foster accountability and increase alignment between financial and clinical staff.
Video | Presentation slides
Apr. 20, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Ensuring Long-Term Success Today: 2023 Revenue Cycle Strategies
The health care industry’s pace of change quickens daily and presents new challenges to patient access, service delivery and long-term success. This ongoing transformation creates limitless opportunities with revenue cycle management to advance performance, compliance, quality, satisfaction and retention. This presentation will focus on fundamentals to maximize opportunities in staffing, financial management and partnerships.
Video | Presentation slides
May 11, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
CAH Reimbursement Heuristic: Using Medicare Cost Report to Reveal Opportunities
Most organizations view the Medicare Cost Report as a tedious administrative task and to many CFOs, a hassle. As a result, CAHs often fail to acknowledge the direct impact the cost report has on CAH reimbursement. This presentation highlights the importance of the Medicare Cost Report, enumerates the Top 10 Most Common Errors and explains how to leverage the cost report as a part of the managerial decision-making process.
Video | Presentation slides
June 8, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
10 CAH Revenue Cycle Priorities: What to Review Immediately
Sometimes operational changes take time to manifest; sometimes, they don’t. This presentation focuses on areas to review within your revenue cycle that can improve payment immediately (and retrospectively). This review will provide top areas of focus that can increase cash flow, enhance revenue, improve contractual performance and minimize denials.
Video | Presentation slides
July 13, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
The Post-Acute Care Lever: Hospital Swing Beds
A hospital swing bed program can serve as a vital patient care service and an untapped revenue growth resource for rural hospitals across the country. This presentation focuses on specific opportunities to enhance the performance of the swing bed program by improving operational efficiencies and increasing utilization of them, while exposing misconceptions related to price setting, contribution margin analysis and contract negotiations with commercial payers.
Video | Presentation slides
Aug. 3, 12 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
How to Build Revenue: Front-End Competencies
Efficient and accurate verification of insurance eligibility and benefits streamlines the revenue cycle process and typically generates ancillary revenue, insurance incentives and improved value-based and quality scores. This presentation will focus on insurance benefits, preventative services and referred-ordered ancillary services. Reviews will include the importance of insurance verification and operational communication to optimize revenue from patient populations.
Video | Presentation slides
Aug. 31, 12 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
The No Surprises Act: Revenue Protections and Transactional Compliance
Pricing transparency regulations have been in place since 2020, yet a vast majority of hospitals are still noncompliant. This presentation will provide strategies to employ improved eligibility and coverage estimates, providing patient estimation and good faith estimates, and improving precertification and authorization issues to prevent inaccurate balance billing and ensure rural hospitals meet regulatory requirements to mitigate potential financial penalties.
Video | Presentation slides
Sept. 14, 12 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Fund Your Mission: Practice Steps to Move from Volume to Value
With the ongoing movement toward population-based payment models, organizations must understand how volume-based initiatives can impact finance and operations performance as well as drive long-term strategic options. This presentation focuses on the transition from volume to value while providing participants with the pros and cons of different population-based approaches.
Small Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP) Webinars
SHIP Wintergreen Webinars
Wintergreen FY23 SHIP Capstone Webinar
June 19, 2024 | 9 a.m. - 10 a.m.
Wintergreen FY22 SHIP Capstone Webinar
May 24, 2023 | 12 p.m. - 1 p.m.