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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Healthcare facilities

Success Story: Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative
Discusses the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative's (RWHC) approach to supporting community health and economic vitality in rural Wisconsin. Highlights successful partnerships between hospitals, community groups, philanthropies, and commercial organizations.
Date: 05/2023
Sponsoring organization: Wisconsin Office of Rural Prosperity
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Rural Track Programs: A Guide to the Updated Medicare Requirements
An overview of the requirements to participate in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Rural Track Program (RTP), which is a partnership between an urban hospital - the primary clinical site - and rural site(s) for medical residency training. Describes how the RTP program differs from the earlier rural training track (RTT) program.
Date: 05/2023
Sponsoring organization: Association of American Medical Colleges
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Rural Health Challenges and Opportunities
Presentation slides discussing rural health challenges, including access and affordability, poor health, and underlying factors driving the stress on rural health systems. Outlines policy opportunities to improve affordability and create incentives for improved health.
Author(s): Timothy McBride
Date: 05/2023
Sponsoring organizations: Center for Advancing Health Services, Policy and Economics Research, RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
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Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs): CMS Flexibilities to Fight COVID-19
Outlines specific regulatory waivers and Medicare flexibilities for Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Includes information on payments for telehealth services, COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and more. Identifies whether each waiver or flexibility was terminated, ended at the conclusion of the public health emergency, was extended, or became permanent.
Date: 05/2023
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Mortality Among US Veterans Admitted to Community vs Veterans Health Administration Hospitals for COVID-19
Reviewed 64,856 Veterans Health Administration (VHA) elderly enrollees between March 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021 to compare COVID-19 health outcomes for those admitted to VHA hospitals to those admitted to community hospitals. Discusses access to VHA hospitals for rural veterans. Makes recommendations for future COVID-19 surges and other pandemics.
Author(s): Michael E. Ohl, Kelly Richardson Miell, Brice F. Beck, et al.
Citation: JAMA Network Open, 6(5)
Date: 05/2023
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Patient-Centered Care Through Nurse Practitioner–Led Integrated Behavioral Health: A Case Study
Examines the implementation of a nurse practitioner-led interprofessional team-based behavioral healthcare delivery model in 5 rural or medically underserved clinics in Texas from July 1, 2020, through December 31, 2021. Analyzes the first year of implementation of the delivery model utilizing multiple data sources, with a focus on barriers to implementation, challenges to sustainability, and successes.
Author(s): Cindy Weston, Elizabeth Wells-Beede, Alice Salazar, et al.
Citation: Public Health Reports, 138(1)
Date: 05/2023
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Community Health Centers Seek to Prepare Medicaid Beneficiaries, and Themselves, for the Risks Ahead
Explores how Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), including an FQHC serving rural North Carolina, are helping Medicaid beneficiaries stay enrolled or find alternate coverage during the post-COVID-19 redetermination process. Describes how operations of these FQHCs have been changed by funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and pandemic-related regulatory flexibilities.
Date: 05/2023
Sponsoring organization: Commonwealth Fund
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A Strategy to Tackle Public Health Misinformation
Blog post discussing how COVID-19 vaccine misinformation impacted vaccine uptake in rural Livingston County, Illinois. Describes how the county health department worked to address vaccine hesitancy. Highlights the theory of planned behavior and its potential applications for hospitals and health systems.
Date: 05/2023
Sponsoring organization: American Hospital Association
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Community Impact and Benefit Activities of Critical Access, Other Rural, and Urban Hospitals, 2021
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.
Date: 05/2023
Sponsoring organization: Flex Monitoring Team
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Achieving Behavioral Health Care Integration in Rural America
Provides an overview of behavioral health and primary care integration and how integration may be different in rural areas than in urban and suburban areas. Examines the barriers to integration in rural areas and opportunities for policies that can improve access to care. Offers policy recommendations to better coordinate and integrate primary care and behavioral health services for high-risk groups and expand the ability of primary care providers to handle the lower-acuity behavioral health needs of patients through enhanced payments, training, and improved access to behavioral health providers for consultation and referral. Builds on the March 2021 report, Tackling America's Mental Health and Addiction Crisis Through Primary Care Integration.
Author(s): Kendall Strong, Michele Gilbert, Julia Harris, et al.
Date: 05/2023
Sponsoring organization: Bipartisan Policy Center
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