Jody Haines, MHA, FACHE
Jody Haines has dedicated her career to rural healthcare. As a fifth-generation Montanan, her frontier roots serve as the “why” in her quest to make geography irrelevant in delivering medicine. For the past 19 years, she has served in regional leadership roles focusing on strategic development and long-term sustainability of innovative rural health initiatives. Over the past decade, Jody has led, designed, and implemented cutting-edge digital health initiatives aimed at enhancing healthcare access to quality care.
Jody is the director of telehealth for Billings Clinic and the Eastern Montana Telemedicine Network, which includes over thirty rural healthcare facilities across Montana and Wyoming. She is also chair of the Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center.
A fun fact about Montana is that the Eastern Montana Telemedicine Network is one of the first telemedicine networks in the country. Established in 1993, it was created to better connect healthcare services to rural and underserved communities. Jody remains deeply committed to serving rural populations and has seen firsthand how telehealth helps patients receive care more quickly. Despite harsh weather conditions, far distances, or the demands of busy ranching and farming seasons, telehealth allows patients to connect with providers. As she explains, “Telehealth allows us to make geography irrelevant in delivering healthcare, which is crucial in the diverse geography we are fortunate to serve.”
Jody holds a Bachelor of Science from Montana State University, an Executive Master’s in Healthcare Administration from the University of Washington, and a Certificate in Digital Health Leadership from Harvard University.
She was introduced to telehealth by her mother, who provided rural heath care services for her patients and later was able to offer telehealth to those rural patients “before it was cool.” She is inspired by the leaders who came before her and says she feels fortunate to “stand on the shoulders of those who built the initial models to deliver care across a distance.” Today, she works with an exceptional team that continuously innovates and expands telehealth services, directly improving healthcare access for the patients they serve. Jody is proud to see telehealth become a routine part of everyday healthcare noting “telehealth is health”.
Haines and her team have delivered telehealth services to patients ranging in age from newborns to over 100 years old. She takes great pride in the ability to provide high-quality care across such a wide age spectrum. While acknowledging telehealth is not an option for every clinical use case or patient, she encourages patients who are curious about telehealth, she says, “Try it. We are here to help! Telehealth is just another front door to care—and we’ll walk you through it.”
Her advice to providers looking to implement telehealth is: “Keep it simple—it works.” She emphasizes that while telehealth has proven to be the right tool for her clinic—and in some cases even more effective than in-person visits, finding the right balance between virtual and in-person care is essential. One of the biggest ongoing challenges is connectivity. Limited access to broadband and varying levels of comfort with technology can create barriers for patients. Despite these challenges, she remains optimistic about the future of telehealth. Continued progress in education, support, and flexibility has helped expand its reach. As she notes, “Sometimes telehealth looks like video, sometimes it looks like phone, and that adaptability has helped us overcome a lot.”
Thank you for your commitment to telehealth excellence, Jody – we’re excited to see your reach continue to grow.
