Rural Project Examples from CMS Health Care Innovation Award

Kitsap Mental Health Services: Race to Health!
Updated/reviewed November 2022

Need: To improve the physical health of individuals seeking mental healthcare.
Intervention: Race to Health! in Washington integrated mental health, substance use disorder treatment, and primary care for individuals with severe mental illness.
Results: Race to Health! helped reduce emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and costs (a total savings of $5,144,000 for Medicare patients).

Project Lazarus
Updated/reviewed November 2021

Need: To reduce overdose-related deaths among prescription opioid users in rural Wilkes County, North Carolina
Intervention: Education and tools are provided for prescribers, patients and community members to lessen drug supply and demand, and to reduce harm in prescription opioid use
Results: Opioid overdose death rates have decreased in Wilkes County

Atlantic General Hospital Patient Centered Medical Home
Updated/reviewed August 2022

Need: Ways to reduce hospital admission rates, emergency department visits, and total cost of care while better accommodating patients of the Atlantic General Hospital Corporation.
Intervention: The hospital system applied a patient centered medical home care model to their 7 rural outpatient clinics located throughout the Eastern Shore of Maryland and southern Delaware.
Results: From the program's care coordination, care transitions, and intervention efforts, AGH saw improvements in quality-of-care processes, service use, and spending.

Felton Early Psychosis Program
Updated/reviewed April 2019

Need: A treatment model for those showing early signs of schizophrenia.
Intervention: The Felon Early Psychosis Program program was started in rural and urban California counties. The program encourages schizophrenia remission in clients through medication and psychosocial initiatives.
Results: Clients' hospitalization and psychiatric emergency room visits were reduced by 70% after 1 year of treatment. Schizophrenia symptoms also reduced significantly among their clients.

Delta Dental Mobile Program
Updated/reviewed March 2023

Need: Lack of access to oral healthcare for children from limited-income families in the rural and urban areas of South Dakota.
Intervention: Delta Dental of South Dakota launched the Delta Dental Mobile Program in 2004 to expand access to oral healthcare services to children throughout the rural state.
Results: The Delta Dental Mobile Program has provided over $38 million in dental care to more than 68,000 South Dakota children.

Effective Examples