A Focus on Rural Workforce

March 13, 2025

Rural communities rely on a strong workforce to ensure access to health care for residents.

Recently, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen visited Penn Highlands Connellsville to discuss challenges facing rural hospitals and the impact of proposed investments in the health care workforce—particularly in rural areas—included in Governor Josh Shapiro’s proposed 2025–2026 budget.

“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.”

Here are some key takeaways:

Incentives work:  The Primary Care Loan Repayment Program has assisted 219 health care professionals—physicians, nurses, dentists, nurse practitioners, and other health care providers throughout the commonwealth in the past two years.

Rural communities are impacted most:  In urban counties in Pennsylvania, there is one primary care physician for every 222 residents. In rural counties across the commonwealth, 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.

Recent stops:  Recently, Governor Josh Shapiro visited Temple University Health System to highlight his plans to invest $5 million to educate, train, and recruit nursing professionals and Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital to highlight Pennsylvania’s health care workforce shortage and support for rural hospitals.      

Seeking solutions:  Last year, HAP worked closely with the Shapiro administration on a rural health care working group made up of hospital leaders and other stakeholders.

Quotable:  “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,” said Secretary Bogen.

Learn more about the event online.

Pennsylvania’s annual budget deadline is June 30 and budget hearings across departments are underway. HAP is focused on advocacy to ensure that rural hospitals can sustainably serve their communities. Learn more about HAP’s agenda to ensure all Pennsylvanians can access high-quality care.