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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Statistics and data

Children's Advocacy Centers: Literature Review: A Product of the Model Programs Guide
A literature review discussing the history of children's advocacy centers (CACs), characteristics of CACs and their services, characteristics of children using CACs, and their effectiveness. Discusses rural throughout.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
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Rising Rural Mortality Rates From Natural Causes for Working-Age Adults Lead to Widening Gap With Urban Counterparts

Reports on disparities in natural cause mortality rates between rural and urban working age adults. Explores disparities by various demographic factors and underlying causes.


Author(s): Kelsey L. Thomas (Conley), Elizabeth A. Dobis, David McGranahan
Citation: Amber Waves
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
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As Older Rural Population Grew, Ratio of Rural U.S. Eldercare Establishments Fell

Bar chart comparing the number of eldercare establishments per 1,000 adults 65 or older in rural and urban areas between 2010 and 2023. Eldercare establishments include those that provide home health, long-term care, or assisted living services, as noted in the 2024 Rural America At a Glance report.


Author(s): Brandon Genetin
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
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MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy: Skilled Nursing Facility Services: Chapter 6
Discusses payment adequacy for skilled nursing facility (SNF) services. Features statistics on SNF care provided by rural hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) via swing beds and Medicare margins for urban, rural, and frontier freestanding SNFs in 2023.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy: Home Health Care Services: Chapter 7
Discusses payment adequacy for home health care services. Features statistics on Medicare margins for home health agencies between 2019-2023 with breakdowns by urban and rural areas, a comparison of patient-experience quality measures by urban and rural status, and the number of home health periods provided to rural beneficiaries.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy: Hospice Services: Chapter 9
Discusses payment adequacy for hospice and palliative support services. Includes data on average costs by day and aggregate margins by urban and rural status, as well as demographics on Medicare decedents who used hospice during 2010 and between 2019-2023. Compares the actual hospice utilization rates in micropolitan, rural adjacent, rural nonadjacent, and frontier areas to urban hospice utilization rates.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy, 2025
Annual review of Medicare payment policies, with recommendations to Congress. Includes discussion on Medicare payment policies directly affecting rural providers and beneficiaries. Addresses payment adequacy for Medicare fee-for-service payment systems, Medicare Advantage (MA), and Medicare Part D.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Report to Congress on Medicaid and CHIP, March 2025
Reports on three aspects of Medicaid of interest to Congress: 1) improving the usability and transparency of the managed care external quality review process, 2) improvements on timely access to home- and community-based services (HCBS), and 3) ways to streamline Medicaid Section 1915 authorities for home-and community-based services and reduce the administrative burden.
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission
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March 2025 MedPAC Meeting Transcript
Transcript from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's (MedPAC) March 2025 meeting. Covers research and proposals related to reforming physician fee schedule updates and improving the accuracy of relative payment rates, reducing beneficiary cost-sharing for outpatient services at Critical Access Hospitals, Medicare insurance agents, Medigap, payment for ground ambulance services, home healthcare use among Medicare Advantage enrollees, and institutional special needs plans. Includes rural references and considerations throughout.
Additional links: Mandated Report: Payment for Ground Ambulance Services, Reducing Beneficiary Cost-Sharing for Outpatient Services at Critical Access Hospitals
Date: 03/2025
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease Prevalence by Race and Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Status, Urbanicity, and Social Determinants of Health Among Medicare Beneficiaries With Diabetes
Examines demographic disparities in cardiovascular disease prevalence among people with diabetes, utilizing 2015–2019 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data. Includes sociodemographic data, including rural-urban comparisons, on crude and adjusted prevalence of myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure.
Author(s): Xilin Zhou, Joohyun Park, Deborah B. Rolka, et al.
Citation: Preventing Chronic Disease, 22, 240270
Date: 03/2025
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