By Mike Laffin
The South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations (SDAHO) is pleased to recognize Civica as the 2026 Rural Health Leaders Conference Social Sponsor. Their generous partnership helps make this important in-person event possible, supporting meaningful learning and connection for rural health care leaders. This year’s event will take place June 24-25, 2026, at the Ramkota Hotel and Conference Center in Pierre, South Dakota.
For more than 15 years, hospitals across the United States have faced a persistent and growing challenge: shortages of essential generic medications used every day in emergency rooms, operating rooms, intensive care units, and cancer treatment centers.
While public attention often focuses on the cost of newer therapies, including obesity medications, hundreds of critical sterile injectable medicines remain vulnerable to chronic shortages caused by a fragile supply chain, manufacturing disruptions, and years of unsustainable low prices that discouraged investment in quality manufacturing capacity.
Rural hospitals are among the hardest hit.
Limited purchasing power, smaller inventories, and fewer supply chain resources often leave rural and critical access hospitals disproportionately exposed when shortages occur. In many cases, pharmacy teams spend enormous amounts of time sourcing medications that should be readily available, while hospitals are forced to delay procedures, substitute therapies, or pay unpredictable prices for essential drugs.
To help address this challenge, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has awarded a $3.2 million grant to the Civica Foundation to launch the Civica Rural Hospital Program, a new initiative designed to expand access to reliable, affordable generic medicines for rural hospitals across nine states.
The three-year pilot program has launched in Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
The Civica Foundation — the philanthropic arm of Civica, the nonprofit generic drug company created by hospitals to combat persistent drug shortages — will use the grant to cover membership fees for eligible rural and critical access hospitals, enabling them to join Civica at no cost. Civica will also waive annual purchase commitments for participating hospitals, eliminating financial risk while still providing access to medications protected by Civica’s sustainable supply model.
“Access to essential medicines should not depend on where you live,” said Todd Shellenberger, President of the Civica Foundation. “As hospitals across the country continue to face serious drug shortages, our new program is designed to help protect patient care by giving rural hospitals more reliable access to critical medicines that are often at risk of being in short supply.”
Founded by health systems as a nonprofit “health care utility,” Civica was created on the belief that access to essential medicines should be treated as a public good rather than a competitive advantage. The organization focuses on long-term supply reliability, investment in quality manufacturing, preference for U.S.-based sourcing, and maintaining roughly six months of inventory for many medications to help buffer market disruptions.
With 60 members, including leading health systems, hospitals, and philanthropic organizations, Civica supplies more than 70 essential medicines to over 1,400 hospitals, supporting care for over 100 million patients to date.
Ultimately, Civica’s goal is simple: help make sure hospitals and patients can count on essential medicines being available when they are needed most. The Helmsley Charitable Trust is helping to make this possible in rural communities.
“We join the Civica Foundation in the mission to make sure every hospital has access to the medications they need,” said Walter Panzirer, Trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “We are committed to supporting the Civica Foundation in its work to level the playing field by creating a new model that makes it financially viable for rural, underserved hospitals to tap a more stable and less price-sensitive supply of generic drugs.”
Author: Mike Laffin is Vice President of Member Accounts at Civica. He will join us at the 2026 Rural Health Leaders Conference June 24-25. Feel free to reach out to him at any time at Michael.Laffin@civicarx.org to learn more about how to bring your health system or hospital into Civica’s reliable supply network.
To learn more about the Rural Health Leader’s Conference or to register, click here.
