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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Policy

Communities, Climate Change, and Health Equity: Lessons Learned in Addressing Inequities in Heat-Related Climate Change Impacts: Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief
Summary of a National Academies' Environmental Health Matters Initiative workshop in June 2023 discussing health equity for heat-related climate change. Highlights challenges with data gathering, recent policy changes, capacity building, and partnerships. Includes discussion of rural specific challenges, occupational health for farmworkers and other outdoor workers, and healthcare access.
Additional links: Read Online
Date: 2023
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Closing the Opportunity Gap for Young Children
Discusses the factors that cause inequities and limited access to resources for young children, such as poverty, food insecurity, abuse and violence, lack of social and emotional safety, inadequate healthcare and schooling, and more. Discusses policy and practices aimed at reducing opportunity gaps, with a focus on historically disadvantaged populations, including those in rural areas.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
Date: 2023
Sponsoring organization: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Intergenerational Poverty and Mobility Among Native Americans in the United States: Proceedings of a Workshop
Report aims to identify programs and policies to reduce intergenerational poverty among Native Americans. Discusses the structural and historical factors that contribute to intergenerational poverty and explores promising interventions for addressing those factors.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Board on Children, Youth, and Families
Date: 2023
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Future Planning for the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Enterprise: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Proceedings of a Workshop
Summarizes discussions held during a May 2022 workshop to explore the nation's public health emergency (PHE) preparedness enterprise. Includes key components, success stories, and failure points, to identify opportunities for effective catastrophic disaster, pandemic, and other large scale PHEs planning at the federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial levels. Mentions disparities between urban and rural or tribal areas throughout.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies
Date: 2023
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Assessing Intake of Food and Dietary Supplements in Older Adults: Proceedings of a Workshop Series
Summarizes workshop proceedings on assessing food intake and dietary supplements in adults aged 75 years or older. Discusses screening, nutrition practices, challenges, and policies related to elderly adults. Includes considerations of nutritional issues specific to aging in rural areas.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Food and Nutrition Board
Date: 2023
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Rural Hospital Stabilization Grant Program Phase 6 Program Report
Provides an overview of the Rural Hospital Stabilization Grant Program for rural Georgia hospitals. Describes projects funded in fiscal year 2021 as part of Phase Six of the program and how funds were used to meet program goals.
Date: 12/2022
Sponsoring organization: Georgia State Office of Rural Health
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Private Health Insurance: State and Federal Oversight of Provider Networks Varies
Describes oversight responsibilities for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid, the Department of Labor, and state governments for ensuring adequate private health insurance plans and provider networks. Examines processes for determining adequacy through surveys and interviews with stakeholders from state agencies and medical association groups as well as a review of relevant laws and regulations. Outlines factors for inadequacy including health workforce shortages and distance from in-network services in rural areas.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 12/2022
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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Exploring Remaining Needs and Opportunities for Improvement in Rural Communities: A Focus on Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Services
Provides an overview of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program. Presents findings from interviews with rural human services providers across 8 sites with MIECHV-funded programs. Describes the experiences of rural practitioners as they deliver home visiting services in their communities. Offers lessons learned and practitioner recommendations to help inform policy and service delivery moving forward.
Author(s): Emily Brimsek, James Murdoch, Neel Chakraborti
Date: 12/2022
Sponsoring organizations: 2M Research, Administration for Children and Families
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Virginia Community Services Boards Behavioral Health Services: 2022
Report on activities of Virginia's Community Services Boards (CSBs), the state's primary mechanism for providing publicly funded behavioral health services in local communities. Includes a section on CSBs' role in providing services to rural areas. Features statistics on numbers of substance use disorder and mental health consumers, with breakdowns by urban and rural CSBs.
Date: 12/2022
Sponsoring organization: Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission
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Evaluation of the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration: Interim Report Two (Covering 2016-2018)
Provides an overview of the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration (RCHD). Describes the characteristics of RCHD participants as of fiscal year 2018, the Medicare payments received under the program, and the impact of the RCHD on hospital financial measures. Examines whether hospitals that continued to participate in the RCHD under the 21st Century Cures Act (CCA) extension experienced additional changes to their financial condition, as well as the impact of the program on hospitals that joined the demonstration for the first time under the CCA extension.
Additional links: Findings at a Glance
Date: 12/2022
Sponsoring organizations: American Institutes for Research, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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