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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Healthcare business and finance

Rural Age-Friendly Health Systems, with Alan Morgan, Rani Snyder, and Jed Hansen
An episode of the Exploring Rural Health podcast featuring Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, Rani Snyder, Vice President for Program at John A. Hartford Foundation, and Jed Hansen, Executive Director of the Nebraska Rural Health Association. Focuses on the Rural Age-Friendly Initiative, a John A. Hartford/NRHA partnership.
Date: 04/2024
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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KanCare Unwinding Data by Age and County as of Feb. 29, 2024
An interactive data table that depicts Medicaid unwinding in Kansas related to the end of the COVID-19 federal Public Health Emergency in March 2023. Allows user to select for rurality, age group, and county, showing corresponding approved, discontinued, or reinstatement window insurance coverage counts and rates.
Author(s): Alex Ferguson, Wen-Chieh Lin
Date: 04/2024
Sponsoring organization: Kansas Health Institute
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Dental Therapy Resource Guide
Describes the role of dental therapists in expanding access to dental health care in rural communities. Outlines the status of state laws and regulations regarding dental therapy education and practice as of August 2021. Compares the scope of practice of dental therapists to other dental care providers.
Date: 04/2024
Sponsoring organization: National Association of Community Health Centers
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What Happens to Rural Hospitals During a Ransomware Attack? Evidence from Medicare Data
Explores the effects of ransomware attacks on hospital operations. Analyzes data from the Tracking Healthcare Ransomware Events and Traits (THREAT) database, which includes information for every hospital identified as experiencing a ransomware attack between 2016 and 2021, and linked to Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) claims data. Compares the characteristics of rural and urban hospitals that experienced a ransomware attack. Describes the impact of ransomware attacks on rural and urban inpatient admissions, outpatient and emergency room visit volume, and travel distance and time to the next closest hospital not experiencing an attack.
Author(s): Hannah T. Neprash, Claire C. McGlave, Katie Rydberg, Carrie Henning-Smith
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 40(4), 728-737
Date: 03/2024
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Primary Care Spending in Medicare Fee-for-Service: An Illustrative Analysis Using Alternative Definitions of Primary Care
Discusses the importance of primary care to promote positive health outcomes and how reimbursement rates illustrate what healthcare areas are given priority. Utilizes Medicare fee-for-service data to estimate primary care spending and provides data breakdowns according to beneficiary characteristics, including rural versus urban location.
Date: 03/2024
Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
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A Lack of Behavioral Health Providers in Medicare and Medicaid Impedes Enrollees' Access to Care
Examines the availability of behavioral health providers who actively serve Medicare or Medicaid enrollees in 20 counties, 10 urban and 10 rural, across 10 states in 2021. Explores the extent to which traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid enrollees received behavioral health services and whether they used telehealth or in-person services. Offers recommendations to encourage more behavioral health providers to serve these enrollees and expand coverage to additional behavioral health provider types. Includes rural and urban comparisons throughout.
Additional links: Report Highlights
Date: 03/2024
Sponsoring organization: Office of Inspector General (HHS)
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Environmental Scan on Developing and Implementing Performance Measures for Population-Based Total Cost of Care (PB-TCOC) Models
Presents results of an environmental scan regarding the development and implementation of population-based total cost of care (PB-TCOC) payment models. Describes types of performance measures used in value-based payment models and pay-for-reporting programs, data sources used for constructing performance measures, features of PB-TCOC models, challenges in developing and implementing performance measures and opportunities for Alternative Payment Models (APMs) and PB-TCOC models to address these challenges, trends in existing performance measures across several Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) models and Medicare value-based care programs, and more. Includes rural references and considerations throughout.
Date: 03/2024
Sponsoring organizations: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, NORC at the University of Chicago
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Community Impact and Benefit Activities of Critical Access, Other Rural, and Urban Hospitals, 2022
Examines the economic and healthcare benefit of Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) on rural communities. Looks at the services provided, the economic health of CAHs, and the effect this has on their communities broadly. Includes comparisons of community benefit and patient care services indicators provided by CAHs and other rural and urban hospitals.
Author(s): Zachariah Croll, John Gale
Date: 03/2024
Sponsoring organization: Flex Monitoring Team
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Identifying Rural Health Clinics Within the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) Analytic Files
Provides an overview and history of the Rural Health Clinic (RHC) Program and the services provided to Medicaid recipients. Examines the methodology for locating RHC encounters within Medicaid claims files utilizing the Transformed Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) Analytic Files.
Author(s): Katherine Ahrens, Zachariah Croll, Yvonne Jonk, John Gale, Heidi O'Connor
Date: 03/2024
Sponsoring organization: Maine Rural Health Research Center
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FH Healthcare Indicators and FH Medical Price Index 2024: An Annual View of Place of Service Trends and Medical Pricing
White paper exploring changes in healthcare utilization, demographic and geographic factors, diagnoses, costs, and procedures. Features statistics including usage of retail clinics and telehealth from 2017-2022; and urgent care, ambulatory surgery centers, and emergency rooms from 2013-2022. Includes comparisons of utilization of each service type by urban and rural location.
Date: 03/2024
Sponsoring organization: FAIR Health
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