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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Access

'A Safe Place': Rural HIV Patients and Providers Fight Stigma, Isolation Through Connection
Reports on a variety of programs underway in rural areas for HIV prevention and treatment. Discusses the challenges and barriers, as well as strategies to address HIV in rural communities.
Author(s): Gretel Kauffman
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 06/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Rural Health on Life Support
Podcast episode discussing the effects of policy on rural maternal health outcomes and access to maternity care services. Covers racial and ethnic disparities in severe maternal morbidity and mortality and the role of state policies, including Medicaid policies, on maternal and infant health.
Date: 06/2023
Type: Audio
Sponsoring organization: Impact! Communications, Inc.
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Rural Health on Life Support - The State of America's Rural Health Systems
Podcast episode discussing the rural health landscape and how policies affect rural healthcare systems and service delivery. Covers rural hospital closures, payment policy, workforce concerns, emergency medical services (EMS), the Rural Emergency Hospital designation, and more.
Date: 06/2023
Type: Audio
Sponsoring organization: Impact! Communications, Inc.
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Development and Evaluation of the Delivery-Based HEALED Produce Rx Program for Uninsured Patients With Diabetes in Rural Eastern North Carolina
A program evaluation brief that provides an overview of the Healthy Eating and Active Lifestyle to Enhance Diabetes management (HEALED) program that surveyed patients in 2019 and then delivered plant-based foods to 40 participants as a part of a produce prescription (PRx) program in 2021. Reports on how PRx programs and related resources such as cooking instructions can positively impact diabetes patients. Discusses the importance of performing a needs assessment, pilot programming, and a formative evaluation in rural and underserved programs to remove food access barriers such as lack of transportation and involve participants in their own wellness journeys.
Author(s): Lauren R. Sastre, Brandon Stroud, Elisa Smith, Khadijah Hendrix, Olivia McBride
Citation: Preventing Chronic Disease, 20
Date: 06/2023
Type: Document
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Critical Access Hospitals: Views on How Medicare Payment and Other Factors Affect Behavioral Health Services
Provides an overview of how Medicare payment policies for care provided by Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). Explores how CAHs provide behavioral health services in their communities. Summarizes findings from interviews with officials from 10 CAHs, stakeholder organizations, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) regarding how Medicare payment policies and other factors affect CAHs' ability to provide behavioral health services.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 06/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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2023 Scorecard on State Health System Performance
Evaluates state health systems on a state-by-state basis. Enables comparison between state health systems across 58 measures, such as access and affordability, prevention and treatment, reproductive care and women's health, and racial and ethnic equity, among others.
Author(s): David C. Radley, Jesse C. Baumgartner, Sara R. Collins, Laurie C. Zephyrin
Date: 06/2023
Type: Website
Sponsoring organization: Commonwealth Fund
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Access to Care among Medicare Beneficiaries Aged 65 and Over Living with High-Impact Chronic Pain
Examines access to care and its association with high-impact chronic pain among Medicare recipients over 65 and not living in a long-term care facility between 2018 and 2020. Includes data breakdown between metro area and non-metro area residents. Discusses delay in seeking medical care due to cost and general access to care.
Author(s): Jared Sawyer, Laura Stoff, Carrie Goetsch, et al.
Date: 06/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Assessing the Effectiveness of Policies to Improve Access to Primary Care for Underserved Populations: Case Study Analysis: Kanawha County, West Virginia
Case study of policy initiatives to increase access to primary care, focusing on Kanawha County, West Virginia. Discusses workforce shortages, healthcare access, structural barriers to primary care, healthcare affordability, and more.
Author(s): Maanasa Kona, Jalisa Clark, Emma Walsh-Alker, Megan Houston
Date: 06/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Milbank Memorial Fund
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Addressing the Impact of Rural Hospital Closures on Maternal and Infant Health
Blog post discussing the impact of rural hospital closures on rural maternal and infant health outcomes. Identifies risk-appropriate strategies to ensure the provision of maternal and infant healthcare at facilities that best meet each individual's level of health risk. Covers birthing centers, hub-and-spoke models, and telehealth models to preserve access to care.
Author(s): Lexa Giragosian
Date: 06/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
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The Impacts of Opioid Addiction on the Rural Workforce
A recorded webinar that examines how the rural workforce has been impacted by opioid addiction. Discusses issues of healthcare access, poverty, mental health, and farmworker health, along with data on workforce impacts. Includes resources to support opioid recovery and examples of recovery efforts in specific regions, such as Appalachia.
Additional links: Executive Summary, Presentation, Transcript
Author(s): Kellie Kubena, Carol Wetuski, Lauren Wood, et al.
Date: 06/2023
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organizations: Appalachian Regional Commission, First Tennessee Development District, Office of Workforce Investment (OWI), U.S. Department of Agriculture
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