Why Rural Healthcare Matters in South Dakota

Patients Wary of Governments, Companies Pushing AI as a Rural Healthcare Solution

HOT SPRINGS, S.D. — Two of the nation’s most powerful health officials predict artificial intelligence will play a key role in solving rural America’s health challenges. Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a panel of U.S. senators that AI nurses can provide “concierge care” to rural patients. Mehmet Oz, who leads the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has said “the best way to help some of these communities is going to be AI-based…

Why Rural Healthcare Matters in South Dakota

HOWARD — Horizon Health doesn’t just serve rural communities. We belong to them.

Federal judge dismisses legal challenges to South Dakota drug discount law

The federal courthouse in Sioux Falls is pictured in November 2022. A federal judge recently ruled in favor of a South Dakota law that helps rural healthcare providers buy discounted drugs and mark up their sale price to fill budget holes created by low Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)A judge has ruled in favor of a South Dakota law that helps rural healthcare providers buy discounted drugs and mark…

Pharmaceutical industry loses bid to scuttle South Dakota law

Photo by Árpád Czapp on UnsplashA bid by the pharmaceutical industry to roll back a law passed by the South Dakota Legislature failed after a federal judge ruled the law was constitutional.Drug manufacturers including AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, AbbVie and the trade organization Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, filed lawsuits against the state to block the Legislature’s passage of Senate Bill 154 during the 2025 s…