September 16th

CRHC 101: Your Partner in Rural Health

Presented by Colorado Rural Health Center

September 16th, 11-11:30am MST

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New to CRHC or looking for a refresher on what we offer? This session will provide a quick introduction to the Colorado Rural Health Center, including our programs, services, and member benefits. Learn how CRHC can serve as a resource and partner for your organization throughout the year.

Rural Health Coverage Update: What Partners Need to Know for 2027 

Presented by Connect for Health Colorado

September 16th, 12-1pm MST

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Join Connect for Health Colorado for an update on the Colorado health insurance marketplace. This session will provide the latest information on federal and state policy developments, upcoming marketplace changes, and key enrollment updates impacting rural communities. Participants will also receive an overview of current marketing and outreach strategies, available consumer resources, and opportunities to support enrollment efforts across Colorado. This presentation is designed for community partners, healthcare providers, and organizations serving rural populations.

September 17th

Energy & Natural Gas Procurement for Rural Health: How Strategic Market Management Protects Budgets and Reduces Volatility

Presented by Beyond Energy

September 17th, 11-12pm MST

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Rural health centers continue to face rising energy costs, unpredictable natural gas markets, and budget volatility driven by seasonal demand and supplier pricing. This session provides a practical, plain language overview of how strategic natural gas procurement and active market management can stabilize operating budgets, reduce exposure to price spikes, and create predictable year over year savings. Beyond Energy outline how procurement programs work, what options exist in Colorado and surrounding regions, and how rural facilities can leverage competitive supply, imbalance optimization, and forward market strategies to strengthen financial performance without adding operational burden.

Protecting Your Bottom Line: HIPAA Compliance & Healthcare Cost Strategies

Presented by UNIQSA

September 17th, 1-2pm MST

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Rural healthcare organizations face increasing financial and operational pressures, making it more important than ever to identify practical strategies that protect resources and strengthen long-term sustainability. Join us for this two-in-one webinar featuring expert presentations on HIPAA compliance and employee health benefit management, presented by UNIQSA, a preferred partner of CRHC.

Cheryl McKenna from Merchant Advocate will kick off the session with a fast-paced overview of HIPAA requirements for patient and insurance credit card payments, sharing five simple steps to help your organization avoid costly compliance issues and ensure payment processes remain secure. Afterwards, Justin Futrell from TrueNorth will explore how rural hospitals can reduce healthcare benefit costs, improve employee health outcomes, and take advantage of available funding opportunities while maintaining a competitive benefits package.

Whether you’re looking to reduce financial risk, improve operational efficiency, or better support your workforce, this webinar will provide actionable insights you can put to work right away.

Keeping Care Local: Building Strategic Partnerships for Rural Hospital Success

Presented by Specialist TeleMed

September 17th, 2-3pm MST

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Rural hospitals face a difficult balance. Community needs continue to grow while workforce, financial, and operational resources remain limited. Strategic partnerships can help hospitals close critical capability gaps without assuming the full cost and risk of building every service internally.

This webinar, presented by Specialist TeleMed (STeM) will explore how rural healthcare leaders can identify partnership opportunities, evaluate potential collaborators, and create sustainable models around shared goals. Attendees will examine practical applications in specialty care, workforce support, technology, quality improvement, and operational efficiency. The session will also introduce a framework for moving from a recognized capability gap to a partnership that strengthens local care.

September 18th

Colorado’s Hospital Provider Fee: Protecting Medicaid & Access to Care for Coloradans 

Presented by Colorado Hospital Association

September 18th, 9-10am MST

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This session offers stakeholders a first look into CHA’s newly released report on Colorado’s Hospital Provider Fee, a critical funding source for Medicaid coverage and access to care across the state. The report examines the growing pressures facing the fee amid shifting federal policy, along with what’s needed to protect it going forward. Attendees will come away with a clearer understanding of how the Hospital Provider Fee works, the challenges ahead, and what’s at stake for hospitals and the patients they serve.

H.R.1 Work Requirements in Medicaid: What You Need to Know

Presented by Colorado Center on Law and Policy

September 18th, 1-2pm MST

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The implementation of HR1, or the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”, is around the corner. The law will impose new requirements on Medicaid enrollees, and change how funding for Medicaid operates in Colorado. Providers will play crucial roles in supporting enrollment of their patients when the law begins to take effect. In this session, Katie Wallat will share the basics of what HR1 requires, who will be affected, and how it will impact our state budget. By the end of the session, you will understand what you can expect, and what we still don’t know. Katie will also share resources and opportunities to learn more as the law is implemented.

September 21st

Hope Isn’t Passive: Normalizing Mental Health Care Across Rural Colorado

Presented by 988 Colorado

September 21st, 10:30-11:30am MST

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Seeking mental health support should be a normal, accessible part of staying healthy, but in rural communities, connection isn’t always easy to find. Hope isn’t passive—it moves, and so does the work of 988 Colorado. In this session, Director Gordon Coombes shares how lived experience with suicide loss and a career in law enforcement inform systemic change. Gordon will walk through critical findings from a 20-county listening tour across rural Colorado this summer, detailing the past, present, and future of statewide crisis response. Discover how 988 offers free, confidential support 24/7/365 to meet people wherever they are, closing critical care gaps and helping communities frame reaching out as a sign of strength.

Partnering with ColoradoSPH: Students, Workforce, and Rural Public Health

Presented by Colorado School of Public Health

September 21st, 1-2pm MST

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Colorado’s rural hospitals, clinics, and public health organizations play a critical role in preparing the next generation of the rural health workforce. This session will highlight practical ways rural organizations can partner with the Colorado School of Public Health through student practicum and capstone experiences, workforce and career connections, and collaborations with faculty and local public health. We’ll also discuss the skills public health students can bring to rural organizations and how these partnerships can support both organizational needs and students’ pathways into rural careers.

September 22nd

Beyond the Ride: NEMT as Healthcare Infrastructure

Presented by MedRide

September 22nd, 12-12:45pm MST

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Transportation is more than a way to get to an appointment—it is a critical part of the rural healthcare infrastructure. This webinar will explore how Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) helps rural Coloradans overcome transportation barriers, access essential care, and maintain continuity throughout their healthcare journey. Participants will learn about the role of NEMT in strengthening rural healthcare systems, supporting patients and providers, and improving access to care across Colorado.

September 23rd

Smarter Workflows, Stronger Organizations: Lean Thinking for Everyday Operations

Presented by Colorado Rural Health Center

September 23rd, 10-11am MST

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This session introduces the fundamentals of Lean thinking and Quality Improvement (QI) with a practical focus on documenting, refining, and monitoring internal workflows. Participants will learn about a few of the Lean strategies that can help establish meaningful tracking systems that support both clinic and hospital objectives. Using real-world examples from rural healthcare settings, including grant management, onboarding, regulatory readiness, and operational tracking, attendees will explore best practices for developing reliable, sustainable processes that improve efficiency, patient outcomes, financial performance, and organizational resilience.

Making Shift Happen: From Transactional to Transformative

Presented by Michelle Rathman, Impact! Communications

September 23rd, 12-1pm MST

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In this engaging session, Michelle Rathman addresses the unique, often chaotic challenges of transforming health care in rural America. She emphasizes the importance of embracing the complexity of rural infrastructure, policy, culture, and economics to help rural health leaders (and their teams) reimagine their vital role in pursuing long-term systemic improvements-such as integrated care models, community-led health initiatives, and policy advocacy as a practical means to foster meaningful change.

Logging over 100,000 rural miles and drawing on over 30 years of experience with hospital boards, leadership teams, frontline staff, nonprofits, and cross-sector community influencers, she provides a clear and practical roadmap tailored to diverse rural contexts-such as geographic, economic, and cultural differences-for turning downstream challenges into strategic upstream advantages. This guidance helps audiences gear up, get equipped, and build their benches to move away from transactional, short-term fixes toward long-term, organizational, and community-wide shifts in conditions vital to rural thriving.

Michelle Rathman is the CEO of Impact! Communications, Inc. and a seasoned strategist with nearly 30 years of experience in both rural and urban health sectors. A dedicated advocate for rural health, Michelle was honored as the 2025 recipient of the National Rural Health Association President’s Award.