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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by State: Pennsylvania

Serving Rural America: Health Insurance Providers at Work
Offers 5 case studies to showcase the ways in which health insurance providers are working to ensure access to high quality healthcare in rural areas. Examples feature 8 insurance providers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, California, and Oregon sharing different approaches to healthcare delivery, financing, and community engagement.
Date: 09/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: AHIP
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Medicaid: Efforts to Identify, Predict, or Manage High-Expenditure Beneficiaries
Describes strategies used in 7 states to manage beneficiaries' healthcare costs while ensuring quality care, and lists resources the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provides to help states identify, predict, and manage high-expenditure beneficiaries. Discusses effects of social determinants of health and staff shortages in rural areas. Includes statistics for Medicaid expenditures among beneficiaries enrolled only in Medicaid, for fiscal years 2009-2011.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 08/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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Report of Recommendations: Appalachian Regional Commission's Substance Abuse Advisory Council
Report outlines the recommendations of the ARC's Substance Abuse Advisory Council on designing and implementing a substance abuse recovery system in rural Appalachia. Details the need for workforce training and employment via support services post-treatment.
Date: 08/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Appalachian Regional Commission
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Rural Access to MAT in Pennsylvania (RAMP): A Hybrid Implementation Study Protocol for Medication Assisted Treatment Adoption among Rural Primary Care Providers
Presents a study on the implementation of an intervention designed to expand access to medication-assisted treatment for people with opioid use disorder in rural Pennsylvania. Highlights the collaborators and roles within the intervention, breaking down the delivery and support infrastructure.
Author(s): Gerald Cochran, Evan S. Cole, Jack Warwick, et al.
Citation: Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 14, 25
Date: 08/2019
Type: Document
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Health Needs Assessment of Five Pennsylvania Plain Populations
Offers the results of a health needs assessment for 5 Anabaptist Pennsylvania Plain communities compared with the general state population. Discusses prevalence of genetic diseases and mental health conditions, screenings and vaccinations, and general health outcomes. Provides data on demographics, nutrition, environmental health, and health conditions taken from household surveys conducted in 2014 and 2015 which were designed to represent Plain community views of modern medicine.
Author(s): Kirk Miller, Berwood Yost, Christina Abbott, et al.
Citation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(13), 2378
Date: 07/2019
Type: Document
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Psychosocial Supports in Medication-Assisted Treatment: Site Visit Findings and Conclusions
Profiles 5 programs that offer medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder (OUD), including several with rural components. Covers psychosocial support offered, staffing and staff training, collaboration and coordination, financing, data collection and quality improvement, lessons learned, and next steps for each program. Discusses the aspects of psychosocial support that are most important for positive outcomes, types of psychosocial support being used, and factors helping or impeding psychosocial support implementation, including stigma and workforce challenges. Appendix B reviews the literature on psychosocial support in MAT.
Additional links: Appendix B: Psychosocial Supports in Medication-Assisted Treatment: Recent Evidence and Current Practice
Author(s): Garrett Moran, Hannah Knudsen, Caroline Snyder
Date: 07/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
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The Role of Primary Care in Improving Access to Medication-Assisted Treatment for Rural Medicaid Enrollees with Opioid Use Disorder
Examines the utilization of primary care among rural Medicaid enrollees in rural Pennsylvania diagnosed with an opioid use disorder (OUD). Describes the relationship between primary care utilization, distance to a medication-assisted treatment (MAT) prescriber, and MAT utilization.
Author(s): Evan S. Cole, Ellen DiDomenico, Gerald Cochran, et al.
Citation: Journal of General Internal Medicine, 34(6), 936-943
Date: 06/2019
Type: Document
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Running Clear: Preventing Private Water Sources from Becoming a Health Hazard in Rural America
Provides an overview of the potential contaminants in well water and describes how the safety of private water sources is maintained. Features water experts and a public health professional explaining what can be done to keep well water clean, including water testing, education and training, funding, and technical assistance.
Author(s): Jenn Lukens
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 06/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Analysis of Obesity Rates for School Children in Pennsylvania
Report details an analysis of child obesity in Pennsylvania. Compares rural and urban rates by year and considers family demographics, such as occupation, household income, insurance coverage, among other factors.
Additional links: Executive Summary
Date: 06/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Center for Rural Pennsylvania
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Hospitalizations for Newborns with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome - 2018
Examines newborn birth admissions involving neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in Pennsylvania general acute care hospitals from October 2017 through September 2018. Features statistics comparing NAS newborns with all other newborn stays in categories such as rates of complications by type, length of hospital stays, and payment by Medicaid, and NAS rate per 1,000 newborn stays with breakdown by rural or urban location. Includes a county-level map showing rates of NAS.
Date: 06/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council
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