IHA Releases 2026 End of Session Report
Throughout the 2026 state legislative session, IHA advocated on behalf of Illinois hospitals and health systems in response to hundreds of bills and policy issues introduced by state lawmakers. Working with members, this spring IHA advanced several significant policy outcomes. The IHA 2026 End of Session Report provides an overview of many bills filed this year that impact the hospital community, including key details on passage of IHA’s 340B legislation and the Fiscal Year 2027 Illinois state budget, hospital assessment and Medicaid omnibus legislation. Importantly, IHA worked on your behalf to successfully oppose or favorably modify proposed legislation that would have imposed unnecessary or burdensome requirements.
IHA’s 2026 End of Session Report is available on the IHA State Resources webpage. It includes links to detailed IHA memos on legislation of particular interest to hospitals and health systems, and it will be updated as additional member memos become available.
Thank you for your strong support and advocacy, which enabled IHA and the hospital community to achieve the best possible outcomes on key issues during the spring session.
Staff contact: Nichole Magalis
New AHA Report Warns Access to Care is at Risk in Rural Communities
The American Hospital Association (AHA) yesterday released a new report warning that access to care is increasingly at risk in rural communities across America as a convergence of workforce shortages, financial pressures and policy changes threatens hospitals’ ability to maintain essential services.
The report finds that longstanding challenges, including low patient volumes, workforce shortages, geographic isolation and inadequate reimbursement, are being compounded by Medicaid reductions, the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits (EPTCs) and growing pressures associated with Medicare Advantage (MA).
Key findings highlighted in the report include:
- More than 40% of rural hospitals operate at a financial loss and hundreds are at high financial risk, threatening access to care in communities that often have few or no alternative providers nearby.
- Since 2010, more than 150 rural hospitals have closed or converted, while 331 hospitals have eliminated obstetric services and 448 have stopped offering chemotherapy services, forcing many patients to travel farther for care.
- In addition to longstanding challenges, rural hospitals are contending with significant Medicaid reductions, the expiration of the EPTCs and the rapid growth of MA. These issues are expected to drive up the number of uninsured, increase uncompensated care, reduce hospital revenue, increase hospital costs and further strain already fragile rural hospitals and care providers.
While rural hospitals continue to innovate and adapt, the report concludes that innovation alone cannot overcome the financial and structural challenges facing rural healthcare and that sustained policy action is needed now to preserve access to care.
Nearly 40% of Illinois hospitals are small and rural hospitals that provide essential, lifesaving healthcare that's close to home for over 1.6 million residents. As the AHA report notes, a growing number of Illinois’ 85 small and rural hospitals face significant operating pressures yet continue to provide critical services for their patients and their families.
See IHA’s Small and Rural Backgrounder to learn more about the unique challenges facing Illinois’ small and rural hospitals, with a special focus on the innovative ways they are addressing mental and behavioral health in their communities.
Cyber Alert: Credential-Compromising Campaign Actively Targeting Critical Infrastructure
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Secret Service are warning of ongoing activities by FortiBleed, a global credential-compromise campaign used by threat actors to target internet-facing Fortinet FortiGate firewalls and virtual private network gateways at critical infrastructure organizations. The campaign uses reused or leaked credentials and legacy password storage to allow the threat actors to gather and decode large numbers of authentication data. If threat actors disable accounts or change passwords impacted organizations could be locked out of their systems; this would require remediation actions beyond typical patching and password resets. The advisory includes indicators of compromise and mitigation actions to defend against potential attacks.
Spotlight on IHA Business Resources: HCS Survey Services
IHA’s Human Capital Services (HCS) business line offers cost-effective services and a customer-focused approach to help hospitals and health systems meet the challenges of each stage of the employment life cycle.
Our Survey Services provide data on industry compensation, benefits, and employment—vital information for human resources staff who develop organization-wide compensation and benefits structures. Unlike competing services that utilize data that’s up to a year old, IHA HCP leverages member relationships to deliver up-to-date, region- and industry-specific survey data.
The Fall 2026 Hot Jobs Compensation Survey is now open. This regional hospital-based survey helps track compensation trends on in-demand positions. The Fall 2026 Hot Jobs survey is collecting data on 35 positions and four RN specialties. Reports, in both PDF and Excel formats, will be published in early December 2026. It is free to participate in the Hot Jobs Survey, and you may choose to license the results.
IHA HCP partners with Gallagher Surveys on an annual regional healthcare compensation and benefits survey package in the spring. This partnership makes available Gallagher’s advanced data collection tools; open and honest market compensation data; enhanced regional market data for recruitment in bordering states; and relevant market data from Illinois and the wider region.
Staff contact: Gary Drain
Illinois Respiratory Disease Surveillance Data
The Infectious Respiratory Disease Surveillance Dashboard from the Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) provides the latest data on hospital visits, seasonal trends, lab test positivity and demographic data. IDPH also tracks COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus information through the Illinois Wastewater Surveillance System dashboard.
Briefly Noted
The state recently announced $1.8 million in available funding for the Local Food Infrastructure Grants (LFIG) program. This funding bolsters food access in Illinois and supports items such as refrigerated vehicles, livestock processing, community kitchens, and more. These grants strengthen local and regional food supply chains, which increases access to Illinois agricultural products for communities across the state.
Leading the News
6 takeaways from the only gubernatorial debate between Gov. Pritzker and Darren Bailey
WBEZ
Taking their most direct shots yet in Illinois’ gubernatorial election rematch, incumbent Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker went head-to-head with Republican nominee Darren Bailey Tuesday night in the only televised debate scheduled before the polls close next month.
43% of hospitals are in the red: 6 financial notes
Becker’s Hospital Review
Hospital margins fell in August as financial pressures mounted and the share of hospitals operating at a loss is growing, according to Kaufman Hall’s “National Hospital Flash Report,” released Oct. 13.
UChicago Medicine’s CMIO: Promising 30% readmissions dip? Prove it
Becker’s Hospital Review
For years, the dominant model for health system technology relationships followed a predictable arc. A vendor sold a product, supported an implementation, and largely exited. Whether the tool delivered on its original promise became the health system’s problem to work out. Cheng-Kai Kao, MD, chief medical information officer at UChicago Medicine in Chicago, said health systems have accumulated a long history of that arrangement and the arrival of AI as a pervasive operational force is making it harder to sustain.
