In this video segment, WashingtonExec’s Amanda Ziadeh is joined by members of SAIC’s leadership team to discuss the company’s recent launch of the Alliance for Advancing Rural Healthcare. Srini Attili is SAIC’s executive vice president of the Civilian Business Group, and Suresh Soundararajan is the former Virginia Department of Health CIO and current SAIC Rural Health Transformation Program lead.
Together, Attili and Soundararajan share the mission behind the AARH, which brings together eight partners— SAIC, Arcadia, Castlight Health, Covista, Mission Mobile Medical, Telemedicine.com, TruBridge and Walgreens — to help states modernize rural healthcare systems and address persistent access, workforce and infrastructure challenges.
“The transition to value-based models is essential to sustaining rural health systems and delivering on the long-term promise of the Rural Health Transformation Mission. Arcadia is proud to help anchor that work for the Alliance for Advancing Rural Healthcare,” shared Michael Meucci, president and CEO at Arcadia. “As states move from planning to implementation, they need a clear way to measure performance across cost, quality, and outcomes. We integrate fragmented clinical, claims, and community data into a unified foundation, apply analytics, and deliver actionable insights embedded into provider workflows. This enables states to demonstrate progress tied directly to rural healthcare transformation goals and ensures transformation efforts remain accountable and sustainable over time.”
Attili calls the alliance a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” given today’s care structure. Soundararajan, drawing on his experience as a state health CIO, explains where states struggle most in moving from funding and strategy to implementation—and how the alliance closes that gap.
“Rural Americans face not only a shortage of care but also a shortage of guidance to find it, a gap that has gone unaddressed for too long. AARH is bringing together the right partners to finally change that and Castlight is proud to be a part of this mission,” commented Jon Porter, CEO at Castlight.
Attili and Soundararajan also discuss what makes this alliance model different from traditional healthcare partnerships and how it will translate into faster, measurable outcomes for states.
“The Rural Health Transformation Program is a powerful catalyst for change, and our collaborative work with SAIC and the AARH ensures this funding reaches its full potential,” said Eric Bacon, CEO of Telemedicine.com. “We are proud to provide the critical telehealth infrastructure and clinician staffing needed to close the rural care gap and finally make equitable healthcare a reality for every community.”
Steve Beard, chairman and CEO at Covista, added his thoughts on the workforce aspect of rural care. As part of the alliance, Covista will support workforce development through education and placement in underserved communities.
“Covista’s Care Capacity Monitor finds that 85% of healthcare executives in rural and less urban communities say they cannot find enough local talent, nearly twice the rate reported by larger metro organizations,” he said. “Behind that number are communities short on physicians, nurses and behavioral health professionals. Workforce must be central to any serious rural health solution. Covista helps build that workforce by expanding access to clinician training, including distance learning that lets aspiring providers train without leaving the communities that need them most. More than 40% of our most recent graduates are now completing their physician residency in underserved areas. That is why we joined AARH: to help turn a once-in-a-generation federal investment into lasting local care capacity where access challenges are most acute.”
Attili and Soundararajan conclude their discussion by sharing what the program’s current phases are, what to expect in the near term, and what success looks like for the program and for the future of rural healthcare delivery nationwide.