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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Service delivery models

Clinical Risk and Outpatient Therapy Utilization for COVID-19 in the Medicare Population
Evaluates COVID-19 treatment disparities among Medicare beneficiaries, with comparisons by age, race and ethnicity, Medicaid eligibility, nursing home use, telemedicine use, rural/urban status, and more. Utilizes Medicare Master Beneficiary Summary and Standard Analytic Claim files for the year 2022. Provides data on rates of COVID-19 therapy use, including medication, hospitalization, and outpatient treatment. Highlights undertreatment experienced by populations with high risk of severe infection.
Author(s): Andrew D. Wilcock, Stephen Kissler, Ateev Mehrotra
Citation: JAMA Health Forum, 5(1), e235044
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
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National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers: Annual Report 2023
Provides an annual update on the activities of the National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers (NCTRC). Covers specific initiatives and developments for the two national and 12 regional Telehealth Resource Centers.
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers
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Patient Characteristics Associated With Phone and Video Visits at a Tele-Urgent Care Center During the Initial COVID-19 Response: Cross-Sectional Study
Examines patient characteristics related to tele-urgent care in the southeastern United States during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic period. Analyzes phone visits compared to video visits, with data further broken down by gender, age, health insurance status, prescriptions received, and rural versus urban location.
Author(s): Saif Khairat, Roshan John, Malvika Pillai, Philip McDaniel, Barbara Edson
Citation: Online Journal of Public Health Informatics, 16
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
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The Rural Library and Health Cooperative Agreement Program: A New Chapter in Rural Healthcare Access
Video featuring a program that places health liaisons in libraries throughout South Carolina to provide residents with services that include health information, telehealth, reproductive and behavioral health, assistance with social needs, and connections with providers.
Date: 01/2024
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Legislative Action Bridging Public Health and Clinical Healthcare
Discusses legislation that relates to equitable access to healthcare, with a focus on telehealth, infrastructure, safety net services, management of healthcare costs, and the expansion of the healthcare workforce. Includes information on access to emergency departments in rural areas and the Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) designation.
Author(s): Ashley Cram, Brianna Gorman
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
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The Future of Remote Patient Monitoring
Provides an overview of remote monitoring, including evidence-based use cases, coverage and utilization across payers, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation of remote monitoring devices, equity implications, and data security and privacy. Offers policy recommendations regarding ways to improve the use of remote monitoring services, ensure equitable access to these services across populations, and enhance data security and privacy standards. Includes rural references throughout.
Author(s): Julia Harris, Mikayla Curtis, Maya Sandalow, G. William Hoagland, Marilyn Werber Serafini
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Bipartisan Policy Center
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Veterans Health: VA Should Improve Its Monitoring of Severe Maternal Complications and Mental Health Screenings
Examines Veterans Administration (VA) data on deaths and severe maternal morbidity among pregnant and postpartum veterans from fiscal year 2011 through 2020. Explores actions the VA has taken to monitor maternal health outcomes among pregnant and postpartum veterans and the extent to which the VA facilitates mental health screenings for these veterans. Offers recommendations to the VA regarding monitoring trends in severe maternal morbidity by veteran characteristics and maternity care coordinators' screening of veterans for mental health conditions. Includes rural references throughout.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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Evaluation of the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (NGACO) Model: Final Report
Sixth and final evaluation report on the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (NGACO) Model. Summarizes findings from across all six performance years (2016-2021) and explores how participating entities responded to the model and how they did or did not achieve model goals. Presents information on cumulative model-wide impacts on Medicare spending, utilization, and quality of care; variations in model outcomes by organization characteristics; spending patterns of beneficiaries served by NGACOs; population health strategies and pathways to reduced spending; lessons learned; and more. The appendices include data on community and beneficiary characteristics, including rurality.
Additional links: Findings at a Glance, Technical Appendices
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, NORC at the University of Chicago
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Full Committee Oversight Hearing: "Rural Access: Is VA Meeting All Veterans Where They Live?"
The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs full committee oversight hearing discusses rural veteran's access to healthcare through the VA. Features a discussion of the VA's role as both a healthcare provider and a payer via its Community Care Program. Highlights technological challenges related to telehealth, such as lack of broadband connections and technological literacy of older veterans. Presents testimony from the VA, the Government Accountability Office, the Navajo Nation, and veteran advocacy groups, among others.
Additional links: Witnesses' Testimonies
Date: 01/2024
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: House Committee on Veterans' Affairs
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Validation of Remote Anthropometric Measurements in a Rural Randomized Pediatric Clinical Trial in Primary Care Settings
Evaluates the effectiveness of remote assessment of height and weight for rural children, providing comparisons of remote and in-person measurements of 33 caregiver-child pairs. Provides measurement data, assesses measurement reliability, and identifies factors associated with measurement discrepancies. Describes the significance of findings in context of obesity treatment.
Author(s): E Zhang, Ann M. Davis, Elizabeth Yakes Jiminez, et al.
Citation: Scientific Reports, 14, 411
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
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