Connellsville, PA – In the Shapiro Administration’s ongoing effort to support rural hospitals in Pennsylvania, Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen today visited Penn Highlands Connellsville to discuss challenges and opportunities facing rural hospitals, and share the investments Governor Josh Shapiro’s proposed 2025-26 budget would make in those communities.
“The Shapiro Administration is taking a multi-pronged approach to address challenges facing rural hospitals across Pennsylvania,” said Secretary Bogen, who has visited nearly a dozen rural hospitals since 2023. “Governor Josh Shapiro’s budget proposal to offer recruitment and retention incentives would support additional health care professionals, including behavioral health providers, and increase investments in rural hospitals.”
Offering incentives to health care workers has proven to be a successful strategy for recruiting and retaining high-quality practitioners. That is exactly what the Department of Health’s successful Primary Care Loan Repayment Program does, assisting 219 health care professionals — physicians, nurses, dentists, nurse practitioners, and other health care providers throughout the Commonwealth in the past two fiscal years. Six of those health care professionals are currently caring for residents in Fayette County.
Pennsylvania is facing shortages of health care professionals — especially in rural communities. In urban counties, there is one primary care physician for every 222
residents. In rural counties, there is one primary care physician for every 522 residents.
That means that rural Pennsylvanians – who already have to travel further distances to
get to their doctor – also have less access to health care.
“These are unprecedented and extremely challenging times for rural hospitals,” said Penn Highlands Healthcare Chief Operating Officer Mark Norman. “Like other health systems across the country, our hospitals struggle with substantial cost increases for labor, drugs and supplies coupled with the extreme difficulty recruiting physicians, nurses and other providers and inadequate reimbursement rates.”
Yesterday, Governor Josh Shapiro visited Temple University Health System to highlight his plans to invest $5 million to educate, train, and recruit nursing professionals. Last week, the Governor visited Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Bradford County, to highlight his commitment to addressing Pennsylvania’s rural health care workforce shortage and support for rural hospitals.
To combat these challenges, last year Governor Shapiro launched a rural health care working group made up of stakeholders at the state, private sector, health care leaders, and others across the state. His 2025-26 budget proposal takes action to support rural hospitals and build a more competitive health care workforce through the following investments:
· $10 million to invest in hospitals statewide, through the Department of Human Services, to assist the Commonwealth in responding to urgent consumer health needs and staffing requirements. This investment will also leverage an additional $25.1 million in federal matching funds, bringing total support to $35.1 million.
· $10 million to expand behavioral health loan repayment programs, ensuring providers are available statewide – including in rural communities – to meet the growing demand for mental health care and address a critical workforce shortage.
· $5 million to expand the Primary Care Loan Repayment Program offering loan repayment for health care providers that serve in rural communities.
· $20 million to provide patient safety and support to hospitals in a new dedicated appropriation, to address barriers to care like affordability, transportation and reliable providers.
· $5 million to educate, train, and recruit nursing professionals through tuition support, ensuring a steady pipeline of highly trained professionals.
· Enhancing postpartum depression screening and intervention efforts to ensure timely and equitable access to maternal and mental health care for mothers.
· Encouraging legislation to grant full practice authority to nurse practitioners who have worked under a physician for three years, increasing access to care in underserved communities.
Watch Governor Shapiro’s full budget address to a joint session of the House and Senate here. See the Governor’s full remarks as prepared for delivery here.
Read more about Governor Shapiro’s 2025-26 budget proposal. Explore the Governor’s 2025-26 Budget in Brief here, or visit shapirobudget.pa.gov to learn more.
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