What’s inside:
The Rural Health Transformation Program is designed to help rural hospitals invest in technologies that create measurable operational and financial improvements.
In this recorded webinar, IDENTI discusses how AI-powered OR charge capture, automated data collection, and improved revenue cycle workflows can help hospitals reduce revenue leakage, support sustainability goals, and meet CMS reporting expectations.
Most rural hospitals are losing revenue they have already earned. The Rural Health Transformation Program gives hospitals an opportunity to invest in technologies that reduce revenue leakage, improve OR documentation, and support long-term financial sustainability.
IDENTI’s Lisa Miller (Chief Sales Officer) and Shlomo Matityaho (CEO & Founder) walk through:
- How the Rural Health Transformation Program is structured and what CMS requires states to deliver
- Why OR charge capture is one of the highest-ROI opportunities in the program
- How IDENTI’s Snap&Go AI imaging technology captures close to 100% of OR supply data, without added clinical burden
- Why states are prioritizing this exact category of technology investment
Webinar Transcript – Maximizing the Rural Health Transformation Program: Opportunities for Investment
The following is an edited transcript of the webinar. It has been lightly condensed for readability.
The Case for OR Charge Capture in Rural Hospitals
Lisa Miller: Rural hospitals run on thin margins, and surgical services are disproportionately important to that revenue base. Research found that every 10% growth in surgical volume equals approximately a 2% improvement in operating margins.
The problem is that most hospitals are still capturing charges manually, which leaks revenue at every step. What IDENTI does is make that process automated and autonomous, guaranteeing close to 100% capture.
What Is the Rural Health Transformation Program?
Lisa Miller: This is a $50 billion investment over five years, with $10 billion allocated per year. It came out of the Big Beautiful Bill. A typical state receives approximately $200 million, depending on population.
What makes this program different from a typical grant is how CMS is enforcing it. The workload funding is performance-based. States must report out on milestones quarterly, and CMS is going to be very hands-on about whether the money is being used as designed and, more importantly, whether the design is meeting the milestones.
A few structural points worth understanding:
- No state match required
- Three of ten funding categories must be addressed
- Maximum 15% of funds can go to direct patient care payments and the remaining 85% is for infrastructure, technology, workforce, and innovation
- Maximum 5% of funds can be spent on replacing EHR systems
That last point is important. IDENTI is not an EHR replacement, it empowers your existing systems, providing it with critical data it’s missing.
The core message from CMS is this: the technology you choose has to produce hard data. At the end of every quarter, you need quantifiable results you can submit to your state.
Where Each State Stands
Lisa Miller: We have participants from six states today on the call, and I want to briefly show you where each one’s priorities sit because what you’ll notice is a consistent theme across all of them.
- Texas is prioritizing advanced AI and telehealth, specifically AI to predict outcomes and automate workflows.
- Tennessee has identified AI-enabled tools, workflow automation, and advanced analytics as core priorities.
- Kansas is focused on harnessing data and technology to expand telehealth and remote monitoring, and specifically on meaningful data sharing and aggregate patient outcome analysis.
- Georgia is looking at leveraging technology for healthcare innovation including data-driven diagnostics and EMR enhancements.
- California is prioritizing technology modernization and interoperability.
- Ohio is focused on clinically integrated networks and real-time data exchange.
The common thread across every single state is data, technology, and innovation. That’s not a coincidence it’s because CMS understands that for rural hospitals to become truly sustainable, technology has to carry a significant part of that weight.
IDENTI addresses charge capture at the point of use. That has direct applicability to revenue, sustainability, and technology modernization, and those three pillars that appear in nearly all 50 states’ initiatives.
Why OR Data Collection Is Broken and How to Fix It
Shlomo Matityaho: When we look at the challenges hospitals face today, the core problem is data. Specifically the quality of data present in EHR and EMR systems.
IDENTI develops data collection tools that use AI, machine learning, image recognition, RFID, and smart scale technology to capture what’s actually happening at the point of use and push that validated data directly into the hospital’s existing systems to improve clinical, operational, revenue cycle, billing, and costing workflows.
Here’s the reality of what’s happening in ORs today. In a typical procedure, you have multiple streams of supplies coming in: bill-only items, consignment items, purchased items, sterilized implants, and small items like screws, nuts, bolts. The documentation for each of these happens differently. Bill-only items require label stickers and are usually not loaded in the item master. Implants often require keying in information to EPIC. Each item is different.
None of these systems talk to each other reliably, and the result is that the average data collection rate in U.S. operating rooms is approximately 48%.
That data gap affects: rural health transformation program
- Charge capture and reimbursement
- Inventory management and procurement
- Pick list optimization
- Implant tracking and patient records
- Recall management
- Revenue reconciliation
- Ordering and item master management
Half the data is missing, and the half that exists is scattered across disconnected parts of the organization.
How Snap&Go Works
Shlomo Matityaho: IDENTI’s answer to this problem is Snap&Go, an AI-powered image recognition platform that uses computer vision to transform OR documentation from a data-entry burden into an automatic, passive process.
The concept is straightforward. Instead of asking a nurse to scan a barcode, navigate a dropdown menu, or manually type information into a system, they simply place the manufacturer’s package on the Snap&Go device, label facing up. The camera captures an image instantly. The IDENTIPlatform, using AI and machine learning, extracts all relevant information from that image: manufacturer name, reference number, batch ID, serial number, expiration date, production date, and a timestamped image as proof of use.
That validated data is then pushed automatically into the hospital’s EHR and EMR systems.
The system works for every supply type: bill-only items, purchased items, consignment items, sterilized implants, count sheets. Everything that enters the OR can be snapped in one centralized process.
Two additional capabilities worth noting: rural health transformation program
- Real-time safety alerts. The IDENTI platform stores expiration and recall data. If a nurse snaps an item that is expired or under active recall, the system alerts immediately before the item is used.
- Near-100% data capture. Moving from 48% to close to 100% doesn’t just improve one metric. It improves every downstream process that depends on OR data.
Revenue Cycle Impact: The Front End and the Back End
Lisa Miller: Let me connect this directly to the revenue cycle, because this is where the financial impact becomes very concrete.
Right now, in a lot of hospitals, the charge capture process after surgery looks like this: an OR business manager has a stack of files on their desk and is trying to reconstruct what happened in each case.
IDENTI solves this on both ends. rural health transformation program rural health transformation program
On the front end, we capture every item used during the procedure with a complete, timestamped record. Nothing is missed. Nothing has to be reconstructed after the fact.
On the back end, we provide audit-ready proof-of-use documentation. When a managed care payer requests documentation, or when a retrospective audit comes in, the record is already in the system.
This is what we mean by revenue cycle excellence because it’s not just about capturing more charges today; it’s about protecting the revenue you’ve already earned and being able to prove it.
How IDENTI Aligns with the Rural Health Transformation Program
Lisa Miller: Let me be direct about why we think IDENTI is uniquely positioned for this funding program.
The Rural Health Transformation Program requires measurable outcomes. It requires quarterly reporting. It requires technologies that produce hard data. IDENTI checks every one of those boxes:
- EHR integration — we enhance existing systems, we don’t replace them
- AI-powered automation — we eliminate manual documentation in the OR and post-procedure
- 100% UDI data capture — in a single snap
- Increased charge capture — directly supporting the sustainability requirement
- Audit-ready documentation — the clean, reportable data CMS demands
- Nurse workload reduction — directly supporting the workforce pillar
- Real-time safety alerts — patient safety as a measurable outcome
- Quantifiable ROI — the data you need for quarterly milestone reporting
Sustainability is a compounding requirement under this program. The money has to make more money, year over year. That’s not something you can achieve with technology that produces vague outputs. You need a solution that generates a clear before-and-after story, and we can show you exactly what that looks like for your hospital.
Next Steps
We’d like to offer a free 30-minute strategy session. rural health transformation program
In that call, we will: rural health transformation program
- Show you, with your own data, what your current OR revenue leakage looks like in dollar terms
- Map your specific opportunity to the Rural Health Transformation Program funding category that aligns with your state
- Help you build the business case for integrating IDENTI into your Rural Health Transformation Program funding strategy
Contact us to learn more and schedule your OR revenue review today. rural health transformation program
Thank you for joining us. rural health transformation program
