Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Access
Confronting Rural America's Health Care Crisis
Offers policy recommendations to stabilize the rural healthcare infrastructure and ensuring local access to care. Discusses strategies to provide financial relief to rural providers, preserve obstetric services, expand telehealth services, and address workforce shortages. Includes brief references to policy actions taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additional links: Rural Hospital Transformation Models, Summary, The Case for Expanding Telehealth Services, July 2020
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Bipartisan Policy Center Rural Health Task Force
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Offers policy recommendations to stabilize the rural healthcare infrastructure and ensuring local access to care. Discusses strategies to provide financial relief to rural providers, preserve obstetric services, expand telehealth services, and address workforce shortages. Includes brief references to policy actions taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additional links: Rural Hospital Transformation Models, Summary, The Case for Expanding Telehealth Services, July 2020
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Bipartisan Policy Center Rural Health Task Force
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Community Health Centers in a Time of Change: Results from an Annual Survey
Summarizes results from the Kaiser Family Foundation/Geiger Gibson 2019 Community Health Center Survey. Explores trends in patient health coverage, healthcare affordability, and health center revenue; social determinants of health; potential implications of Medicaid work requirements; participation in the Title X program; and other challenges facing health centers. Includes rural references throughout. Presents survey response data by urban and rural status in Appendix A.
Author(s): Jessica Sharac, Anne Markus, Jennifer Tolbert, Sara Rosenbaum
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: KFF
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Summarizes results from the Kaiser Family Foundation/Geiger Gibson 2019 Community Health Center Survey. Explores trends in patient health coverage, healthcare affordability, and health center revenue; social determinants of health; potential implications of Medicaid work requirements; participation in the Title X program; and other challenges facing health centers. Includes rural references throughout. Presents survey response data by urban and rural status in Appendix A.
Author(s): Jessica Sharac, Anne Markus, Jennifer Tolbert, Sara Rosenbaum
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: KFF
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2020 Rural Hospital Sustainability Index
Reports on an analysis of rural hospital financial viability. Identifies the number of hospitals by state at financial risk of closing and the number by state at high financial risk that are considered essential for community trauma access. Full report is available with email registration.
Additional links: State-Based Data
Author(s): David Mosley, Daniel DeBehnke
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Guidehouse
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Reports on an analysis of rural hospital financial viability. Identifies the number of hospitals by state at financial risk of closing and the number by state at high financial risk that are considered essential for community trauma access. Full report is available with email registration.
Additional links: State-Based Data
Author(s): David Mosley, Daniel DeBehnke
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Guidehouse
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Navigating Nonessential Research Trials During COVID-19: The Push We Needed For Using Digital Technology To Increase Access For Rural Participants?
Describes barriers to rural people's participation in clinical trials. Explores reasons why use of technology might result in an increase in rural communities' participation, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Author(s): Devon Noonan, Leigh Ann Simmons
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 37(1), 185-187
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
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Describes barriers to rural people's participation in clinical trials. Explores reasons why use of technology might result in an increase in rural communities' participation, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Author(s): Devon Noonan, Leigh Ann Simmons
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 37(1), 185-187
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
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Concussion in Rural America: Experts Detail Injury and Recovery of Traumatic Brain Injury
Reports on concussions, or mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI), in rural areas. Discusses the impact of these injuries, the role of support networks, TBI training for rural clinicians, rural TBI data, and management of mTBI in rural areas.
Author(s): Kay Miller Temple
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Reports on concussions, or mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI), in rural areas. Discusses the impact of these injuries, the role of support networks, TBI training for rural clinicians, rural TBI data, and management of mTBI in rural areas.
Author(s): Kay Miller Temple
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Rural Health Care and Medicaid Telehealth Flexibilities, and Guidance Regarding Section 1009 of the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act (Pub. L. 115-271), entitled Medicaid Substance Use Disorder Treatment via Telehealth
Discusses the benefits of utilizing telehealth services to expand access to Medicaid services in rural areas and the flexibility states have in covering these services. Provides guidance on options states have to receive federal reimbursement for substance use disorder treatments provided via telehealth services.
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Discusses the benefits of utilizing telehealth services to expand access to Medicaid services in rural areas and the flexibility states have in covering these services. Provides guidance on options states have to receive federal reimbursement for substance use disorder treatments provided via telehealth services.
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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2018 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
Provides a comprehensive summary and data analysis of healthcare quality and access in the U.S. Includes a discussion of disparities encountered by race/ethnicity and geographic locations along the rural-urban continuum. Addresses access to healthcare, patient safety, person-centered care, care coordination, affordability, healthy living, and effective treatment.
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
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Provides a comprehensive summary and data analysis of healthcare quality and access in the U.S. Includes a discussion of disparities encountered by race/ethnicity and geographic locations along the rural-urban continuum. Addresses access to healthcare, patient safety, person-centered care, care coordination, affordability, healthy living, and effective treatment.
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
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Fast-Track to Teledentistry - Removing Barriers to Care While Maximizing Overall Health
Details the barriers to oral healthcare access and discusses the ways teledentistry can help overcome them. Highlights the role teledentistry can play during public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and in rural and underserved communities. Presents examples of successful uses of teledentistry and provides guidance for teledentistry implementation.
Date: 03/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: CareQuest Institute for Oral Health
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Details the barriers to oral healthcare access and discusses the ways teledentistry can help overcome them. Highlights the role teledentistry can play during public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and in rural and underserved communities. Presents examples of successful uses of teledentistry and provides guidance for teledentistry implementation.
Date: 03/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: CareQuest Institute for Oral Health
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The Health Resources and Services Administration's Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program in Rural Areas of the United States: Geographic Distribution, Provider Characteristics, and Clinical Outcomes
Analyzes 2017 data from the HRSA Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) Services Report to determine the program's reach in rural areas. Compares rural and urban characteristics for providers, services, clinical outcomes, and clients supported by RWHAP. Discusses barriers to rural HIV care delivery and RWHAP's mediation of those barriers.
Author(s): Pamela W. Klein, Tanya Geiger, Nicole S. Chavis, et al.
Citation: PLoS One, 15(3), 1-17
Date: 03/2020
Type: Document
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Analyzes 2017 data from the HRSA Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) Services Report to determine the program's reach in rural areas. Compares rural and urban characteristics for providers, services, clinical outcomes, and clients supported by RWHAP. Discusses barriers to rural HIV care delivery and RWHAP's mediation of those barriers.
Author(s): Pamela W. Klein, Tanya Geiger, Nicole S. Chavis, et al.
Citation: PLoS One, 15(3), 1-17
Date: 03/2020
Type: Document
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Occupancy Rates in Rural and Urban Hospitals: Value and Limitations in Use as a Measure of Surge Capacity
Compares the acute care and intensive care unit occupancy rates between rural and urban hospitals in 2018. Presents state-by-state and national data. Explores the challenges of using this data to identify surge capacity in preparation of an increase in patient volume due to COVID-19.
Date: 03/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Rural Health Research Program
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Compares the acute care and intensive care unit occupancy rates between rural and urban hospitals in 2018. Presents state-by-state and national data. Explores the challenges of using this data to identify surge capacity in preparation of an increase in patient volume due to COVID-19.
Date: 03/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Rural Health Research Program
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