Major CMS‑Recognized Hospital Types
CMS recognizes several distinct hospital types, each defined by federal law and specific Medicare Conditions of Participation. Here are the breakdowns and resources for the major hospital categories.
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States Race To Launch Rural Health Transformation Plans
By Sarah Jane Tribble, Arielle Zionts, & Maia Rosenfeld – In late December, President Donald Trump’s administration announced how much all 50 states would get under its new Rural Health Transformation Program, assigning them to use the money to fix systemic problems that leave rural Americans without access to good health care. Now, the clock is ticking.
The Hospital’s Hidden Supply Chain
By Ellie Gabel – How RTLS Are Tracking More Than Just Patients – Real-time location systems have become essential to modern hospital operations, providing instant visibility into the movement of patients, staff and assets across complex health care environments. While traditionally viewed as a patient-flow management tool, RTLS has evolved into a powerful engine for supply chain visibility.
The Resilient Hospital: On-Site Microgrids Are Making Power Outages a Thing of the Past
By Ellie Gabel – Power disruptions can instantly derail operations in digitally integrated hospitals. Modern health care relies on a complex network of connected medical devices, cloud-based data systems and analytics-driven workflows that demand constant power. Even short outages can interrupt surgeries, disable monitoring systems and compromise patient outcomes.
How Hospitals Can Prepare for AI-Generated Phishing
By Zac Amos – Hospitals run on email, shared portals and ticket queues. Attackers now use generative artificial intelligence to send convincing messages that mimic colleagues, patients, payers or IT to push rushed logins. Language errors used to give such scams away, but AI reduces those tells and scales personalization across thousands of targets.
New Data on the Certified Health IT Market Now Available
By Chelsea Richwine and Wes Barker – New data is now available for public use that helps inform the history and current state of the certified health IT market. We explore that in this blog post, which is part of our new Digital Dividends blog series.
5 Downstream Effects of The Big Beautiful Bill on Hospitals and Patients
By Trish Rivard – On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the ‘Big Beautiful Bill Act’ into law. Under the law’s new Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplace policies, federal funding will decrease by $1 trillion while the uninsured population will increase by 11.8 million over the next decade.
Achieving Widespread Use of Direct Secure Messaging by US Hospitals
By Jordan Everson & Brett Andriesen – The Direct Project created Direct Secure Messaging, a simple, secure, scalable, and standards-based method to send health information between partners and to provide a straightforward pathway to acquire unique provider and organizational addresses to engage in exchange that resembles secure email.
Securing the ‘Internet of Medical Things’
By Ellie Gabel – The rapid digitization of healthcare has ushered in a new era of connectivity and efficiency, led by the rise of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). This vast network of connected medical devices — from infusion pumps and patient monitors to smart imaging systems — forms the digital backbone of modern hospitals and laboratories.