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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Health insurance

Medicare Physician Payment: Impacts of Changes on Rural Physicians
Presents an overview of the effects of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003 on physician payment rates in rural areas.
Author(s): Keith J. Mueller, A. Clinton MacKinney, Timothy D. McBride
Date: 09/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
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A Primer on the Occupational Mix Adjustment to the Medicare Hospital Wage Index
Focuses on the occupational mix adjustment (OMA) to the labor-related share in the hospital inpatient prospective payment system. Explains what the OMA is, why it is needed, and how it has been calculated. Discusses reasons the effect of the OMA has been less than some rural advocates anticipated.
Author(s): Kristin Reiter, Rebecca Slifkin, Mark Holmes
Date: 09/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Rural Health Research Program
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Medicare Physician Payments: Trends in Service Utilization, Spending, and Fees Prompt Consideration of Alternative Payment Approaches
Statement discussing the sustainable growth rate (SGR) system, which Medicare uses to determine annual changes to physician fees. Includes some rural-specific information.
Additional links: Full Report
Author(s): A. Bruce Steinwald
Date: 07/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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National Advisory Committee on Rural Health & Human Services Meeting Minutes, Camden, Maine, June 11-13, 2006
Minutes from a meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services covering the following topics: substance abuse, Medicare Advantage, and Head Start in rural areas.
Date: 06/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services
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MedPAC Report to the Congress: Increasing the Value of Medicare
Examines issues affecting the Medicare program and makes recommendations to the Congress. Topics covered include care coordination, pricing accuracy in the hospice and physician payment systems, quality measures in home health, gathering data on outpatient therapy, Medicare Advantage, the Part D prescription drug program, and cost-effectiveness analysis.
Date: 06/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Medicaid and Its Importance to Rural Health
Presents an overview of the impact that Medicaid has on rural health. Covers the role of Medicaid in rural areas as a source of health insurance, as a revenue source for rural providers, and as a contributor to the community by supporting its health care system and local economy.
Author(s): Keith J. Mueller, Andrew F. Coburn, A. Clinton MacKinney, et al.
Date: 05/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Policy Research Institute Rural Health Panel
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Rural Dental Practice: A Tale of Four States
Reports the findings of a study investigating rural dentist issues, such as: demography, training, practice characteristics, staff, and job satisfaction in Alabama, California, Maine, and Missouri.
Additional links: Project Summary
Author(s): C. Holly A. Andrilla, Denise M. Lishner, L. Gary Hart
Date: 03/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy, 2006
Annual review of Medicare payment policies, with recommendations to Congress. Discussions of rural aspects of Medicare payment policies are included throughout the report.
Date: 03/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Hospital Quality Data: CMS Needs More Rigorous Methods to Ensure Reliability of Publicly Released Data
Describes how the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) collects hospital quality measures and ways the process could be improved to better ensure the accuracy of the data. Discusses how rural and urban hospital accuracy scores compare.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 02/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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National Advisory Committee on Rural Health & Human Services Meeting Minutes, Washington, DC, January 29-31, 2006
Minutes from a meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services covering the following topics: substance abuse, Medicare Advantage, and Head Start in rural areas.
Date: 01/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services
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