HARRISBURG — The Center for Rural Pennsylvania, chaired by Sen. Gene Yaw, will hold a public hearing at 9 a.m. Feb. 9 at the State Capitol Building to learn more about the work of the Rural Health Redesign Center Authority (RHRCA), how it affects rural hospitals/providers, and what the legislature could do to support or enhance its work in the future. The hearing will also be held via Zoom.

“Pennsylvania was the first state in the nation to design and implement the rural health model to address the needs of our rural hospitals as they faced resource constraints in providing critical services to our rural communities,” Sen. Yaw said. “This hearing will bring together those who helped implement the model and those who are participating in the model so that we can learn more about how it is working and any future implications.”

Featured panelists at the hearing are: Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter, Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania Vice President of Innovative Payment and Care Delivery Kate Slatt, Rural Health Redesign Center Chief Operating Officer Janice Walters, Chan Soon-Shiong Medical Center at Windber Chief Executive Officer Thomas Kurtz, Endless Mountains Health Systems Chief Executive Officer Loren Stone, Highmark Health Provider Payment & Network Infrastructure Vice President Sean Burns, National Rural Health Association Chief Operations Officer Brock Slabach, Armstrong Center for Medicine and Health Hospital President and CEO John Lewis, and Rural Health Redesign Center Executive Director Gary Zegiestowsky.

The public hearing will be held in the Main Capitol Building, Hearing Room 8E-B, EW, Harrisburg. To attend the hearing via Zoom, attendees are asked to register in advance at https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pjtxDYNUS4C-Lc2kYUpIKg.