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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Healthcare business and finance

Supporting Critical Access Hospital Staff during COVID-19
Presents summaries of initiatives taken in three Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) to support staff during the COVID-19 pandemic with regard to child care, stress and well-being, and work flexibility. Discusses similarities across these programs and offers considerations for CAHs interested in implementing similar initiatives.
Author(s): Madeleine Pick, Megan Lahr, Shehrose Charania, Ira Moscovice
Date: 06/2022
Sponsoring organization: Flex Monitoring Team
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State Innovation Model Testing Awards from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center: Highlighting Rural Focus
Summarizes the activities and accomplishments of rural-specific State Innovation Models (SIM) in 11 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Oregon, and Vermont. Describes the SIM initiative, which began in 2012 to support states committed to designing and testing strategies for payment model and delivery system reform.
Date: 06/2022
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Value
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Higher Electronic Health Record Functionality Is Associated with Lower Operating Costs in Urban—but Not Rural—Hospitals
Explores the relationship between electronic health record (EHR) use and functionality and hospital operating costs. Examines the effects of different categories of EHR functionality on general, inpatient, and outpatient costs. Compares the relationship between EHR functionality and operating costs across urban and rural hospitals.
Author(s): Claudia A. Rhoades, Brian E. Whitacre, Alison F. Davis
Citation: Applied Clinical Informatics, 13(3), 665-676
Date: 05/2022
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The Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion, Social Disadvantage, and the Practice Location Choices of New General Internists
Examines levels of social disadvantage in states that lost general internal medicine physicians (internists) and states that gained internists after Medicaid expansion. Analyzes 32,102 internists who established their first practice between 2009 and 2019 and their location of choice. Outlines characteristics of internist location choices by population demographics such as age, race and ethnicity, education levels, income levels, social disadvantage level, medical school availability, and rurality.
Author(s): José J. Escarce, Gregory D. Wozniak, Stavros Tsipas, et al.
Citation: Medical Care, 60(5), 342-350
Date: 05/2022
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Rx for the Rural Healthcare Workforce and Access to Care
Podcast with Tom Morris of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy about trends related to the rural healthcare workforce and efforts to overcome challenges. Discusses the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, rural hospital closures, telehealth, graduate medical education in rural areas, community health workers and community paramedics, funding opportunities to promote healthcare access in rural areas, the opioid crisis, and more.
Author(s): Jessica Nicholson
Date: 05/2022
Sponsoring organization: The Conference Board
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Convergence of Service Providers and Managers' Perspectives on Strengths, Gaps, and Priorities for Rural Health System Redesign: A Whole-Systems Qualitative Study in Washington County, Maine
Presents themes from interviews with 46 direct healthcare service providers between September - November 2020 in Washington County, Maine. Explores existing clinical service strengths, local and state gaps in services and the impact of those gaps on quality and safety, and priorities and strategies for sustaining or restoring essential healthcare services.
Author(s): Rebecca L. West, Judy Margo, Jeff Brown, Amy Dowley, Susan Haas
Citation: Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 13
Date: 05/2022
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Rural–Urban Disparities in Health Access Factors Over Time: Implications for Cancer Prevention and Health Equity in the Midwest
Examines environmental and socioeconomic factors in rural and urban counties to understand differences in cancer burden and healthcare access. Analyzes 123 counties in Kansas and Missouri from 2009 to 2017 for health equity factors such as primary care provider availability, lack of insurance, unemployment, and childhood poverty. Includes rural versus urban cancer mortality rates in Kansas from 2008-2017.
Author(s): Jordan Baker, Hope Krebill, Hanluen Kuo, et al.
Citation: Health Equity, 6(1), 382-389.
Date: 05/2022
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MedPAC Comment on CMS's Proposed Rule on the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility PPS for FY 2023
Comments on an April 6, 2022, Federal Register proposed rule addressing updates to the prospective payment system for inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) for fiscal year 2023. Includes comments on the IRF teaching and rural payment adjustments.
Date: 05/2022
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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MedPAC Comment on CMS's Proposed Rule on the Inpatient Psychiatric Facility PPS for FY 2023
Comment on an April 4, 2022, Federal Register proposed rule revising the Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Prospective Payment System (IPF PPS) for fiscal year 2023. Includes a discussion of rural and Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) IPF PPS payment adjustments.
Date: 05/2022
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Association Between Rural Hospital Service Changes and Community Demographics
Investigates possible differences in service availability by local demographics and examines the association between proportion of a rural community belonging to an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-identified priority population and local hospital service changes. Features statistics on changes in healthcare service availability in nonmetro hospitals from 2011-2017, with breakdowns by selected community demographic characteristics. Also includes statistics on changes in availability of 8 types of services in nonmetro hospitals from 2011-2017.
Author(s): Tyler L. Malone, Kathleen Knocke, George H. Pink, et al.
Date: 05/2022
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Rural Health Research Program
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