As healthcare continues to evolve, rural hospitals across Nebraska are finding innovative ways to enhance patient care while controlling costs. The recent launch of the Nebraska High Value Network represents a significant step forward for rural healthcare in our state.

A New Chapter for Rural Healthcare in Nebraska

On June 5, 2025, the Nebraska High Value Network (NHVN) officially launched with 19 critical-access hospitals joining forces to strengthen healthcare delivery across rural communities. This collaborative network, organized by Cibolo Health, represents more than just a partnership—it's a strategic approach to ensuring sustainable, high-quality healthcare remains accessible in rural Nebraska.
The network's cornerstone is a clinically integrated network (CIN) that will serve nearly 300,000 patients while allowing each hospital to maintain its independence and community focus. For healthcare leaders like myself, this model offers a compelling path forward in an increasingly complex healthcare landscape.

What is Value-Based Care?

To understand the significance of NHVN, it's essential to grasp the concept of value-based care—a healthcare delivery model that's transforming how we think about patient outcomes and costs.

Traditional Fee-for-Service Model: Historically, healthcare has operated on a fee-for-service basis, where providers are paid for each test, procedure, or visit performed. While this system ensures providers are compensated for their services, it can sometimes incentivize quantity over quality and doesn't necessarily reward the best patient outcomes.

Value-Based Care Model: Value-based care flips this approach by focusing on patient outcomes rather than the volume of services provided. In this model:

Quality over quantity: Providers are rewarded for keeping patients healthy and achieving better health outcomes
Cost efficiency: The focus shifts to providing the right care at the right time, often preventing more expensive interventions later
Coordinated care: Teams work together to ensure patients receive comprehensive, well-coordinated treatment
Population health: The emphasis extends beyond individual patients to improving the health of entire communities

Think of it this way: instead of being paid for how many patients you see, you're rewarded for how well those patients do over time.

Why Value-Based Care Matters for Rural Communities

Rural hospitals face unique challenges that make value-based care particularly relevant:

Financial Sustainability: Rural hospitals often operate on thin margins. Value-based care arrangements can provide more predictable revenue streams and financial incentives for achieving quality outcomes.

Population Health Focus: Rural communities often have higher rates of chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease. Value-based care encourages preventive measures and proactive management of these conditions.

Care Coordination: In rural areas where specialists may be scarce, coordinated care becomes even more critical. Value-based models encourage collaboration among primary care providers, specialists, and other healthcare team members.

Community Impact: When rural hospitals thrive under value-based arrangements, they can reinvest in their communities, supporting local employment and economic stability.

The NHVN Advantage: Strength Through Collaboration

The Nebraska High Value Network addresses many of the challenges rural hospitals face when trying to implement value-based care independently:

Scale and Resources: By joining together, the 19 member hospitals gain the collective strength needed to negotiate with insurers and invest in population health management tools that might be beyond the reach of individual hospitals.

Shared Learning: The network's Clinical Integration Committee, featuring physicians from each member hospital, creates a forum for sharing best practices and discussing the unique challenges of delivering care in rural settings.

Data and Quality Measures: NHVN will implement a clinical data-sharing platform and develop common quality measures, providing the infrastructure needed to demonstrate value to insurers and track improvements in patient care.

Operational Efficiencies: Beyond clinical integration, the network offers opportunities for members to collaborate on purchasing equipment and services, potentially reducing costs across the board.

Independence with Support: Perhaps most importantly, hospitals maintain their independence and ability to tailor care to their local communities while gaining the support and resources of the larger network.

What This Means for Patients

For patients across rural Nebraska, the NHVN model promises several benefits:

Better Care Coordination: Your healthcare team will have better tools and incentives to work together on your care
Focus on Prevention: More emphasis on keeping you healthy rather than just treating illness
Improved Access: Stronger rural hospitals mean continued access to care close to home
Quality Transparency: Common quality measures across the network mean better tracking and reporting of care quality

Looking Ahead: A Responsible Path Forward

As the CEO of Lexington Regional Health Center, I see the Nebraska High Value Network as representing a thoughtful, responsible approach to embracing value-based care. Rather than going it alone, this model allows rural hospitals to learn from each other, share resources, and gradually build the capabilities needed to succeed in value-based arrangements.

The network's approach recognizes that rural healthcare is different—our communities have unique needs, and our hospitals serve as critical anchors for local economies and health outcomes. By maintaining independence while gaining collective strength, NHVN offers a model that could help ensure rural healthcare not just survives, but thrives in the years ahead.

The Bottom Line: The launch of the Nebraska High Value Network represents more than just a new healthcare partnership—it's a commitment to the future of rural healthcare in Nebraska. By embracing value-based care through collaborative networks like NHVN, we can work toward a healthcare system that truly delivers better outcomes for our patients while ensuring the sustainability of rural healthcare for generations to come.

As we continue to evaluate opportunities for Lexington Regional Health Center to participate in value-based care initiatives, networks like NHVN provide a proven model for how rural hospitals can successfully navigate this transition while staying true to their mission of serving their local communities.

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Strengthening Rural Healthcare - Understanding the Nebraska High Value Network and Value-Based Care