Meet Jeff Nagy | Quality Improvement Advisor
Jeff Nagy is a Quality Improvement Advisor for the Michigan Center for Rural Health (MCRH), where he has supported Michigan’s rural hospitals and clinics since 2016. Before joining MCRH, Jeff spent seven years with The Rybar Group, working on Critical Access Hospital cost reporting and optimization, along with operational projects, including Lean process improvement.
At MCRH, Jeff works with healthcare leaders and staff to strengthen financial performance, improve operations, and support access to care in rural communities. His work includes healthcare finance and reimbursement, revenue cycle improvement, benchmarking, and Lean process improvement. He coordinates MCRH’s Critical Access Hospital CFO/Finance Network and helps hospitals analyze outmigration patterns to identify opportunities to strengthen local services. He also supports transitional care initiatives that help hospitals provide care closer to home.
Jeff enjoys helping organizations turn data and complex reimbursement information into practical steps for improvement. His approach centers on understanding each organization’s needs, building relationships, and working alongside teams to develop solutions that fit their hospital, clinic, and community.
Through the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program, MCRH supports the financial stability and operational effectiveness of Michigan’s Critical Access Hospitals and Rural Health Clinics. MCRH provides data, education, peer networking, and targeted technical assistance to help hospitals improve performance and sustain essential healthcare services in their communities.
CAH Financial Network
The CAH Finance Network connects Michigan Critical Access Hospital financial leaders with education, resources, and opportunities to share best practices. The network addresses emerging financial, reimbursement, revenue-cycle, and operational issues affecting rural hospitals.
Performance Improvement Collaborative (PIC)
The Performance Improvement Collaborative provides participating hospitals and clinics with targeted assistance to strengthen revenue-cycle and operational performance. Organizations use data and structured improvement strategies to address priorities such as accounts receivable, denials, clean claims, registration, and patient collections.
LEAN and Process Improvement
MCRH helps rural hospitals and clinics apply Lean principles to improve patient flow, reduce delays and inefficiencies, and strengthen everyday processes. Projects are tailored to the needs of each participating organization and its staff.
Transitional Care
MCRH supports rural hospitals in strengthening transitional care and swing bed services to help patients recover closer to home. Assistance focuses on care coordination, effective clinical and operational processes, staff development, wellness, advance care planning, and sustainable service-line growth.
Outmigration Analysis & Market Intelligence
MCRH helps rural hospitals understand where patients travel for healthcare services and identify opportunities to retain appropriate care locally. Customized analysis can support service-line planning, community outreach, provider recruitment, and strategic decision-making.
Webinars
- Cyber security webinar
- Navigating Medicare Advantage: Strategies for MI Rural Hospitals
- Promoting Exceptional Patient Interactions and Collect at the Point of Service
- Video
Resources
FMT work focuses on three main topic areas for rural communities: quality improvement, financial and operational improvement, and community engagement. FMT conducts analyses evaluating the Flex Program, collects and tracks state-level CAH data, maintains a national listing of CAHs, and maintains and updates the CAHMPAS database, an online data query tool used to explore the financial, quality, and community-benefit performance of CAHs.
This link provides a guide & tutorial, definitions, and FAQs of FMTs tools available
Provides a wealth of information, opportunities, and resources on rural health. RHIhub strives to help improve rural healthcare services and population health.
The National Rural Health Association is a nonprofit membership organization that gathers members from across the country. Their mission is to lead on rural health issues through advocacy, communication, education, and research.
Explore a range of financial and operational resources featuring best practices and strategies to enhance financial performance and optimize operational efficiency.
Support and guidance guide for CAHs in maintaining long-term financial stability
This technical assistance guide was created as a resource to support Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Programs, as well as leaders of critical access hospitals (CAHs) and rural health clinics (RHCs), in developing strategies to understand the causes of market share loss and address outmigration—defined as patients choosing to receive healthcare services at facilities outside their local community.
Updated guide and answers to frequently asked questions regarding CAH, PPS, and RHC finance and financial performance.
Each year the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) release updates to the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and the Outpatient Prospective Payment and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Systems (OPPS) final rules. The final rules, update the payment policies and payment rates for the current fiscal year.
Current Year IPPS Final Rule CY 2026
CMS webinar on Hospital Price Transparency: Review of the OPPS & ASC CY 2026 Final rule on 2/11/2026, and additional resources:
- Hospital Price Transparency Resources
- https://github.com/CMSgov/hospital-price-transparency
- https://www.cms.gov/priorities/key-initiatives/hospital-price-transparency/resources
- https://www.cms.gov/files/document/webinar-hospital-price-transparency-cy2026-opps-asc-final-rule-slides.pdf
- https://cmsgov.github.io/hpt-tool/
Allows eligible health care organizations to stretch limited federal resources by purchasing outpatient medications at significantly reduced prices, helping them serve more patients and offer more comprehensive care. Pharmaceutical manufacturers that participate in Medicaid are required to provide these discounts to covered entities, which include HRSA-supported health centers, Ryan White clinics, State AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, Disproportionate Share Hospitals, children’s hospitals, and other designated safety-net providers.
See the full list of eligible organizations/covered entities.
Avoid delayed and/or lost revenue | CAH Revenue Cycle Questionnaire Tool
Questions? Contact
Jeff Nagy
Quality Improvement Advisor
517.884.8641
Jeff.Nagy@affiliate.msu.edu