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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Access

COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout in Rural Communities: Challenges, Innovations, and Unmet Needs
Provides insights from rural, frontier, and tribal organizations about the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Discusses challenges in rural communities, including access barriers and vaccine hesitancy, and shares innovative strategies being used to address these challenges. Identifies unmet needs and potential strategies as the vaccination process continues.
Date: 02/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Georgia Health Policy Center
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Availability of Supplemental Benefits in Medicare Advantage Plans in Rural and Urban Areas
Examines differences in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans with supplemental benefits that are available to enrollees in nonmetropolitan and metropolitan areas. Features statistics including average number of organizations offering MA plans, proportion of MA plans offering supplemental benefits, and MA plan premiums as of 2020, with breakdowns by noncore, micropolitan, and metropolitan counties.
Author(s): Jason Semprini, Fred Ullrich, Keith J. Mueller
Date: 02/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
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Broadband Today: Rural America's Critical Connection
Report discussing the importance of broadband to connecting rural communities, including its role in rural businesses, telehealth access, education, and agriculture. Addresses the impacts of COVID-19 on remote work, telehealth delivery, and changes to business and consumer activity, and explores future steps for broadband funding and adoption in rural areas.
Date: 02/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Foundation for Rural Service
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Rural HIV Prevalence and Service Availability in the United States: A Chartbook
Examines state- and county-level human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence in 2016 as well as availability of HIV-related prevention, testing, and treatment services in 2019. Includes data breakdowns by rural/urban status.
Author(s): Katherine Ahrens, Amanda Burgess, Louisa Munk, Erika Ziller
Date: 02/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Maine Rural Health Research Center
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Capacity of Rural Counties to Address an HIV or Hepatitis C Outbreak
Examines data from 20 states potentially at risk of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) outbreak to determine which services local health departments (LHDs) provide to help identify or address HIV or HCV. Examples of relevant services include HIV testing, substance use services, and infectious disease surveillance, among others. Includes rural/urban differences in LHD services and staff, LHD partnerships and collaboration, and demographic characteristics of at-risk counties.
Author(s): Jennifer Lenardson, Jaclyn Janis, Amanda Burgess, Karen Pearson, Martha Elbaum
Date: 02/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Maine Rural Health Research Center
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Meeting the Challenge of Caring for Persons Living with Dementia and Their Care Partners and Caregivers: A Way Forward
Examines the existing evidence on care interventions, services, and supports for people with dementia and their caregivers. Discusses gaps in the current evidence base and opportunities for future research. Describes interventions that can be implemented in a variety of settings to continue to expand the evidence base. Includes rural references and considerations throughout.
Additional links: Read Online
Date: 02/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Child Care in Rural Minnesota After 2020: A Unique Opportunity
Summarizes changes in child care in Minnesota from 2000-2020. Describes the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on child care and employment, and features discussion on how a lack of child care can affect parents' abilities to secure and maintain jobs. Includes data and statistics on changes in childcare provider licenses and capacity. Offers recommendations for recovering from the pandemic and keeping child care intact in rural Minnesota.
Additional links: Webinar Recording
Author(s): Marnie Werner
Date: 02/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Center for Rural Policy and Development
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Care Outcomes Among Black or African American Persons with Diagnosed HIV in Rural, Urban, and Metropolitan Statistical Areas — 42 U.S. Jurisdictions, 2018
Examines HIV care outcomes among Black people with diagnosed HIV infection living in rural (less than 50,000 population), urban (50,000–499,999 population), and metropolitan (500,000 population or more) areas. Provides rural/urban/metropolitan data by age group, gender, and transmission category addressing: stage of diagnosis, linkage to care within one month of diagnosis, and viral suppression within 6 months of diagnosis.
Author(s): Shacara Johnson Lyons, André F. Dailey, Chenchen Yu, Anna Satcher Johnson
Citation: MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report), 70(7), 229-235
Date: 02/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Trends in Nursing Home Closures in Nonmetropolitan and Metropolitan Counties in the United States, 2008-2018
Policy brief documenting closures of facilities dually certified by Medicare and Medicaid or facilities certified by Medicaid only. Identifies areas lacking nursing homes and summarizes characteristics of open and closed nursing homes. Features statistics with breakdowns by metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, and county-level maps showing areas with one or more nursing home closures from 2008-2018 and counties considered nursing home deserts.
Author(s): Hari Sharma, Redwan Bin Abdul Baten, Fred Ullrich, A. Clinton MacKinney, Keith J. Mueller
Date: 02/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
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Older Adults, New Mobility, and Automated Vehicles
Discusses how the use of automated vehicles (AVs) and shared mobility options, like carsharing, ridehailing, and others, in public transportation may benefit and harm older adults. Identifies key factors related to older adults' mobility and describes transportation challenges in rural communities.
Author(s): Laura Fraade-Blanar, Nico Larco, Ryan Best, Tiffany Swift, Marjory Blumenthal
Date: 02/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: AARP Public Policy Institute, RAND Corporation, Urbanism Next Center
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