UnitedHealthcare is expanding its rural health initiatives, including exempting rural providers from most medical prior authorization requirements by the fall of 2026, it announced on Monday.
The prior authorization exemption will apply to about 1,500 rural hospitals and associated rural practitioners, including all critical access hospitals, across all of UnitedHealthcare’s lines of business. This is meant to “alleviate cost and staffing strains that disproportionately affect rural providers,” according to the announcement.
It comes as numerous payers are taking efforts to reduce prior authorization requirements. In June of 2025, more than 50 health insurers (including UnitedHealthcare) made a series of commitments to improve the process, and earlier this month, AHIP and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association announced that health plans have eliminated 11% of prior authorizations since launching the commitments. The payers are also working to standardize electronic prior authorization and expand real-time responses.
In addition to exempting rural providers from most medical prior authorization requirements, UnitedHealthcare announced an expansion of its Rural Payment Acceleration Pilot and that it’s launching new partnerships with health systems.
The Rural Payment Acceleration Pilot was launched in January 2026 in four states: Oklahoma, Idaho, Minnesota and Missouri. The program accelerates Medicare Advantage payments to hospitals from fewer than 30 days to fewer than 15 days. It is now expanding the program to Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, and aims to expand this program to the same 1,500 rural hospitals by the fall of 2026. It will also include payments made through Medicaid and fully-insured commercial plans.
Lastly, UnitedHealthcare is partnering with health systems to support “hub-and-spoke care models that connect regional clinical expertise with community-based access points,” the announcement stated. These models include virtual care, home care, data interoperability and clinical decision support, initially focusing on maternity care, diabetes and post-surgical care.
“Rural care providers are essential to their communities yet fragile, so we welcome the chance to make meaningful investments to support their work — and we expect to continue investing more and actively building on these initiatives,” said Tim Noel, CEO of UnitedHealthcare.
The National Rural Health Association applauded UnitedHealthcare’s rural healthcare announcements.
“We appreciate UnitedHealthcare’s efforts to ease the financial and administrative strain being felt by rural health care providers,” said Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association. “We look forward to working with UnitedHealthcare to ensure local providers in rural areas have the support they need to care for the people in their communities.”
Photo: marekuliasz, Getty Images
