Earlier this month, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued draft guidelines that would actively disincentivize utilities from pursuing long-term undergrounding programs — a direction that is dangerously out of touch with the realities facing California’s businesses, communities, and hospitals.
Change is nothing new in health care. From technological innovations to shifting patient needs, hospitals have constant reasons to evolve. That ability to adapt is taking on a new urgency in the aftermath of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which only compounds the financial challenges hospitals face.
Faced with growing challenges, rural hospitals across Northern California are finding innovative ways to do more with less. Rural hospitals are not a “nice to have” — they are essential to the strength, stability, and survival of California’s entire health care system. When a rural hospital closes, the ripple effects are immediate and far-reaching: