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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Healthcare needs and services

Medicare Payment Basics: Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities Payment System
Overview of Medicare's payment system for inpatient rehabilitation services in freestanding facilities or within acute care hospitals. Demonstrates how payment rates are adjusted to account for certain facility characteristics, including facilities in rural areas.
Date: 10/2026
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Medicare Payment Basics: Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Services Payment System
Overview of Medicare's payment system for inpatient psychiatric services provided in freestanding hospitals or specialized hospital-based units. Demonstrates how payments for these services are adjusted to reflect geographic differences in labor costs, and cost of care by facility and patient characteristics.
Date: 10/2026
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Medicare Payment Basics: Hospice Services Payment System
Overview of the Medicare hospice benefit and Medicare payments to hospice providers. Describes the four levels of care of the hospice prospective payment system and payment rates.
Date: 10/2026
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Medicare Payment Basics: Home Health Care Services Payment System
Overview of Medicare payments for home healthcare services. Includes information on rate-setting and payments for quality reporting and performance. Describes the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) and the home health resource groups (HHRGs) based on clinical and functional status.
Date: 10/2026
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Medicare Payment Basics: Durable Medical Equipment Payment System
Overview of Medicare payments for medical equipment used to treat beneficiaries at home. Defines durable medical equipment (DME), details the DME fee schedule, and discusses the competitive bidding program (CBP) for DME. Includes information a revised methodology for awarding contracts in the next round of competitive establishing payment rates in 2028.
Date: 10/2026
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Medicare Payment Basics: Ambulance Services Payment System
Provides an overview of Medicare payments for ambulance services. Discusses rural add-on payment policies, geographic categories determining payment rates, super-rural ZIP codes, and ambulance fee schedules.
Date: 10/2026
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Medicare Payment Basics: Skilled Nursing Facility Services Payment System
Overview of Medicare payments for skilled nursing and rehabilitation services. Describes what constitutes a skilled nursing facility and how small, rural hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) may be used to provide these services with CMS approval. Compares Medicare daily base rates for urban and rural skilled nursing facilities.
Date: 10/2026
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Health Professional Shortage Areas: Mental Health
Printable map that shows nonmetropolitan and micropolitan mental health HPSAs on one color scale and metropolitan mental health HPSAs on another. Data source: data.HRSA.gov
Additional links: Mental Health HPSA Table
Date: 10/2026
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Health Professional Shortage Areas: Dental Care
Printable map that shows nonmetropolitan and micropolitan dental care HPSAs on one color scale and metropolitan dental care HPSAs on another. Data source: data.HRSA.gov
Additional links: Dental Health HPSA Table
Date: 10/2026
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Health Professional Shortage Areas: Primary Care
Printable map that shows nonmetropolitan and micropolitan primary care HPSAs on one color scale and metropolitan primary care HPSAs on another. Data source: data.HRSA.gov
Additional links: Primary Care HPSA Table
Date: 10/2026
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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