Arkansas Center for Health Improvement

11/06/2025

ACHI is well represented at the National Association of Health Data Organizations' 40th Annual Conference, which is being held virtually. Kenley Money (center), who serves as board chair for NAHDO, delivered opening remarks Tuesday; Cain Farnam moderated a panel Wednesday on "Data Visualization: Empowering Insight and Transparency with Dashboards and Tools"; and Sarah Crawford will give a presentation this afternoon on "Use of Dental, Medical, and Pharmacy Claims To Find Gaps and Areas for Improvement."

11/05/2025

ACHI’s new president and CEO, Craig Wilson, sat down with KUAF's “Ozarks at Large” program to discuss issues facing the state’s healthcare system and policy opportunities to improve health outcomes for Arkansans.

ACHI’s new president and CEO, Craig Wilson, sat down with KUAF’s “Ozarks at Large” program to discuss issues facing the state’s healthcare system and policy opportunities to improve health outcomes for Arkansans.

11/03/2025

The federal government shutdown has disrupted benefits provided through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which nearly 250,000 Arkansans depend on for basic groceries. The Trump administration said Monday it will use contingency funds to pay 50% of the normal amount of SNAP benefits in November, but it was not immediately clear when those benefits would be paid. State and local entities across Arkansas are taking steps to fill the gap, including Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who announced Friday she was directing $500,000 in reserve funds to six Arkansas food bank networks.

Here are other resources related to food assistance in Arkansas:

Be Mighty, an anti-hunger campaign sponsored by the City of Little Rock and the Central Arkansas Library System: https://cals.org/be-mighty-little-rock

Where to find food assistance in Little Rock: Local resources helping families in need: https://katv.com/news/local/where-to-find-food-assistance-in-little-rock-local-resources-helping-families-in-need

Arkansas Foodbank (Central and Southeast Arkansas): https://arkansasfoodbank.org/

Northwest Arkansas Food Bank: https://www.nwafoodbank.org/

Food Bank of North Central Arkansas: https://foodbanknca.org/

Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas: https://www.foodbankofnea.org/

River Valley Regional Food Bank: https://www.rvrfoodbank.org/

Harvest Regional Food Bank (Southwest Arkansas): https://harvestregionalfoodbank.org/

10/21/2025

Dr. Joe Thompson, ACHI president emeritus and a professor of pediatrics and public health at UAMS - University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.

Dr. Joe Thompson, ACHI president emeritus and a professor of pediatrics and public health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, a congressionally chartered organization that serves as the scientific academy of the United States.

10/16/2025

We are excited to announce that Craig Wilson has been named president and CEO of ACHI following a national search. Wilson has led ACHI on an interim basis since January. He previously served as director of health policy and is the host of our podcast, "Wonks at Work."

A native Arkansan and graduate of Lyon College in Batesville, Wilson has a law degree from the Georgia State University College of Law and a master’s degree in public administration from the Georgia State University Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.

Craig Wilson, JD, MPA, has been chosen to lead the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement as president and CEO following a national search.

10/09/2025

In 1978, the Rev. Hezekiah D. Stewart founded the Watershed Human and Community Development Agency in Little Rock. Described as the state’s first “social hospital,” the Watershed continues to provide food, clothing, transportation, job guidance, and more to Arkansans in need of those services, with the goal of allowing them to build healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives. The ACHI Health Policy Board has honored Stewart, who died in 2023, with the 2025 Dr. Tom Bruce Arkansas Health Impact Award in recognition of his outstanding impacts on the health of Arkansans. Read more: bit.ly/438sUEo

10/08/2025

The ACHI Health Policy Board honored the late Rev. Hezekiah D. Stewart on Tuesday with the Dr. Tom Bruce Arkansas Health Impact Award, which recognizes an individual who has had outstanding impacts on the health of Arkansans. Stewart’s widow, Diane Stewart, accepted the award during the annual Friends of ACHI Appreciation Event in Little Rock. Read more: bit.ly/438sUEo

09/29/2025

The federal budget law enacted earlier this year includes the Rural Health Transformation Program, a $50 billion fund that will be allocated to states over five years to soften the impact on rural areas of reduced spending on healthcare coverage programs. The Rural Health Association of Arkansas has adopted a set of recommendations for utilizing Arkansas's allocation of funds.

Dear RHAA members,
The Board of Directors of the Rural Health Association of Arkansas has prepared a set of recommendations for the State of Arkansas regarding the development of projects and allocation of funds through the Rural Health Transformation Program, established as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill. These funds are designed to strengthen rural healthcare systems by improving the quality of care, reducing costs, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of healthcare in rural communities.
Outlined below are the Association’s recommendations for how these funds should be utilized:

DEVELOP A FAIR AND TRANSPARENT PROCESS FOR DISPENSING AND MONITORING FUNDS
• Establish clear goals and criteria for applicants.
• Conduct open meetings for application consideration and publicly report spending in a detailed and transparent manner.
• Ensure heightened scrutiny of applications which include partners, vendors, or investors that might create conflicts of interest or unintended consequences for healthcare quality and access.
• Require disclosure of financial status, risks, and relationships.
• Make funding contingent on explicit service delivery commitments and ensure that funds are used either directly or indirectly for the benefit of rural health in Arkansas.

EMBRACE A REGIONAL MINDSET
• Recognize the interdependence of rural communities and the potential benefits of regional approaches to service delivery, including collaboration across sectors when appropriate.
• Encourage applications that pool resources and expertise and demonstrate long-term, formal regional networks for prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and other efforts, with capacity to share services and reduce travel burdens for patients.
• Use state oversight to remove collaboration barriers and leverage resources.
• Support non-traditional sites of service and explore innovative partnerships and technology that expand regional reach.

USE EVIDENCE TO GUIDE FUNDING DECISIONS
• Prioritize funding of initiatives that are supported by evidence.
• Assess specific needs and demand for services within rural populations, including outmigration of services that could be provided locally, with a focus on mitigating negative impacts on access and ensuring support for those with the greatest health needs.
• Monitor fiscal impacts of federal and state policy on rural healthcare providers and direct funding correspondingly.

SUPPORT ESSENTIAL SERVICES WHILE ENCOURAGING INNOVATION
• Safeguard emergency services through payments for fixed costs so that providers offering those services can absorb standby capacity, even when patient volume and related revenue are not high enough to cover the expenditures.
• Encourage demonstration initiatives that are accompanied by scientifically rigorous evaluations.
• Reduce financial barriers to invest in shared technology for remote delivery of care and patient data exchange.
• Strengthen local access to primary care including preventive care and chronic disease management, maternal care, and the ability to identify and address health-related social needs.
• Bolster transportation for follow-up services that directly support patient access to services not locally available.

INVEST NOT ONLY IN INFRASTRUCTURE AND INSTITUTIONS BUT ALSO IN PEOPLE
• Identify facility or equipment challenges that serve as a barrier to optimizing service delivery.
• Invest in technical assistance to support adoption of technology-enabled solutions, financial stewardship, workforce recruitment, retention, and training, and administrative or governance capacity.
• Engage community members in identifying and prioritizing their most pressing needs and ensure that community-based mental health services are part of the conversation.

For questions or additional information, please reach out to us anytime at admin@rhaarkansas.org or (870) 888-2088.

09/29/2025

Thank you to the Delta Population Health Institute for allowing us to participate!

09/25/2025

Arkansas roadway fatalities declined 7% in 2023, the most recent year with data available. More of ACHI's analysis is included in our latest data watch: https://achi.net/publications/data-watch-arkansas-roadway-fatalities-2016-2023/

09/23/2025

During Community Health Centers of Arkansas, Inc.'s biennial conference Friday, ACHI's Craig Wilson moderated a panel of maternal health experts and policy makers focused on the state's all-hands approach to improving outcomes for Arkansas moms and their babies.

09/09/2025

Changes are on the way for community health workers in Arkansas with the introduction of a statewide certification process and the ability to bill insurance for their services. In a new episode of "Wonks at Work," Colby Takeda of Pear Suite, a hub for thousands of community health workers across the country, joins host Craig Wilson to discuss how community health workers in other states have navigated similar transitions.

Community health workers have been operating across the state for years, but changes are on the way. Earlier this year, the Arkansas General Assembly approved the Community Health Worker Act, which will establish standardized training and a statewide certification process for community health worker...