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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Pharmacy and prescription drugs

Vital Signs: Changes in Opioid Prescribing in the United States, 2006-2015
Reports on opioid prescribing in the United States from 2006 to 2015. Includes data for metropolitan, micropolitan, and noncore (rural) counties. Also offers maps showing county-level prescriptions per capita in 2015 and changes in prescriptions per capita from 2010 to 2015.
Author(s): Gery P. Guy Jr., Kun Zhang, Michele K. Bohm, et al.
Citation: MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report), 66(26), 697-704
Date: 07/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Potentially Preventable Medication-Related Hospitalizations: A Clinical Pharmacist Approach to Assessment, Categorization, and Quality Improvement
Examines pharmacist-led quality improvement practices, implemented across rural and urban counties in Hawaii, to identify and categorize potentially preventable medication-related hospital admissions. Describes how data collected during the investigation is used to improve pharmacist interventions focused on reducing medication-related readmissions.
Author(s): Karen L. Pellegrin, Elizabeth Lee, Reece Uyeno, Chris Ayson, Roy Goo
Citation: Journal of the American Pharmacies Association, 57(6), 711-716
Date: 06/2017
Type: Document
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A Project to Promote Adherence to Blood Pressure Medication Among People Who Use Community Pharmacies in Rural Montana, 2014–2016
Results of a project conducted by the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services to evaluate interventions by community pharmacies to promote blood pressure medication adherence. Includes optional activity through which clinicians can earn continuing medical education credit.
Author(s): Carrie S. Oser, Crystelle C. Fogle, James A. Bennett
Citation: Preventing Chronic Disease, 14
Date: 06/2017
Type: Document
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MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System, June 2017
Includes chapters on implementing a unified payment system for post-acute care, Part B drug payment policies, the redesign of the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and other alternative payment models, drug and device manufacturer payments to physicians and teaching hospitals, stand-alone emergency departments, and skilled nursing facility use. Rural hospitals and rural patient populations are discussed throughout the report.
Date: 06/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Rural Promising Practice Issue Brief: IMPROVE: Integrated Management and Polypharmacy Review of Vulnerable Elders
Highlights a model for delivering integrated care management for older rural veterans with co-occurring chronic diseases. Presents methods for rural providers to help patients manage their prescriptions and avoid polypharmacy.
Additional links: Overview
Date: 05/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Veterans Health Administration's Office of Rural Health
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Identifying Adverse Drug Events in Rural Hospitals: An Eight-State Study
Analyzes adverse drug events (ADEs), or events involving patient injury resulting from medication use, and identifies ways to improve medication safety in rural hospitals. Uses 2013 data from 8 states with significant rural populations, and examines ADE rates based on hospital characteristics and across 4 main categories: steroids, antibiotics, opiates/narcotics, and anticoagulants. Companion brief lists resources that can be used to reduce and prevent ADEs in rural hospitals, including rural prospective payment system (PPS) hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs).
Additional links: Resources to Reduce Adverse Drug Events in Rural Hospitals
Author(s): Michelle Casey, Peiyin Hung, Emma Distel, Shailendra Prasad
Date: 05/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
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Telepharmacy Rules and Statutes: A 50-State Survey
Policy brief identifying state-enacted regulations and legislation authorizing use of community telepharmacy initiatives, and describing implications for patients in underserved rural communities. Includes a table listing states with telepharmacy permitted in some capacity, pilot programs that enable telepharmacy initiatives, waivers enabling telepharmacy initiatives, or no rules or legislation authorizing telepharmacy use.
Additional links: Table Supplement
Author(s): George Tzanetakos, Fred Ullrich, Keith Mueller
Date: 04/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
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Issues Confronting Rural Pharmacies after a Decade of Medicare Part D
Discusses the major challenges facing rural independent pharmacies, focusing on delayed maximum allowable cost (MAC) adjustments, and direct and indirect remuneration (DIR) fees. Other challenges include competition from mail order pharmacies, being a non-preferred pharmacy, and orderly succession planning. Also examines the implications for rural communities when independent pharmacies close.
Author(s): Abiodun Salako, Fred Ullrich, Keith Mueller
Date: 04/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
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MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy, 2017
Provides an annual review of Medicare payment policies, with recommendations to Congress. Includes discussions on Medicare payment policies that directly affect rural providers and beneficiaries. Analyses payment adequacy for home health, skilled nursing, long-term care hospitals, hospice, ambulatory surgical centers, and rehabilitation facilities.
Date: 03/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Evaluation of the Medication Management (MM) Health Care Innovation Awardees: Third Annual Report
Evaluations of 6 Health Care Innovation Awards Round One projects focused on medication management programs, including programs serving rural areas.
Additional links: Addendum, June 2017
Date: 02/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Acumen, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Westat
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