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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Policy

Population Health in Challenging Times: Insights from Key Domains
Summarizes presentations and panel discussions from a September 21-24, 2020 workshop on how the field of population health is responding to and being changed by racial injustice and the COVID-19 pandemic. Examines lack of access to healthcare in rural and tribal areas, and explores the philanthropy sector's conceptual and practical responses to the pandemic and the movement for racial justice.
Author(s): Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Models for Population Health Improvement by Health Care Systems and Partners: Tensions and Promise on the Path Upstream: Proceedings of a Workshop
Proceedings from a public workshop held on September 19, 2019, exploring higher levels of action to improve health, such as changing laws, policies, and regulations, to improve the community conditions for health. Describes efforts of health systems and their partners to move beyond what takes place in clinical settings and to identify and respond to the needs of patients and communities. Notes that some approaches may work differently in rural and urban areas.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care
Examines the current state of primary care in the United States, and describes an implementation plan to strengthen high-quality primary care. Discusses value-based care and reimbursement, access to care, primary care workforce recruitment and training, and the role of health information technology. Includes rural references throughout.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Board on Health Care Services
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Population Health in Rural America in 2020: Proceedings of a Workshop
Presents the proceedings of the Population Health in Rural America 2020 workshop. Chapters examine rural demographics and social determinants of health, rural health and data challenges, rural and tribal healthcare, community health needs assessment, and rural health policy.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Sexually Transmitted Infections - Adopting a Sexual Health Paradigm
Highlights the rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) across the U.S. Discusses how marginalized groups, such as women, LGBTQ, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations, among others, are disproportionately affected. Details how the barriers to healthcare access in rural areas, particularly rural American Indian reservations, can affect the rates of STIs. Makes policy recommendations to address these disparities.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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High and Rising Mortality Rates Among Working-Age Adults
Identifies key drivers of increasing death rates and disparities in working-age mortality from 1990-2017 and examines modifiable risk factors that could alleviate poor health and widening health inequalities in the working-age population. Makes recommendations for future research and data collection, and explores potential policy implications. Mentions rural throughout. Features statistics on trends in working-age mortality by age, sex, race/ethnicity, cause of death, and geography.
Author(s): Committee on Rising Midlife Mortality Rates and Socioeconomic Disparities
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Health Services and Primary Care Research Study
Presents the results of a study in 36 rural primary care practices, including rural health clinics and Federally Qualified Health Clinics, comparing Medicare Fee for Service behavioral therapy for obesity delivered to individual clients in clinics to in-clinic group visits delivered by clinical providers; and phone-based group visits delivered by a centralized provider. Participants included 1407 adults from rural areas over a 24 month period with a goal to identify the most effective therapy for rural settings.
Author(s): Peter Mendel, Courtney A. Gidengil, Andrada Tomoaia-Cotisel, et al.
Date: 2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: RAND Corporation
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The Unique Impacts of U.S. Social and Health Policies on Rural Population Health and Aging
Examines how the Older Americans Act (OAA), the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) impact rural and urban communities differently. Includes discussion about policy efforts and the need to consider the context of place.
Author(s): Danielle C. Rhubart, Shannon M. Monnat, Leif Jensen, Claire Pendergrast
Citation: Public Policy & Aging Report, 31(1), 24-29
Date: 12/2020
Type: Document
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Public Law 116–260: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
Text of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Public Law 116-260 (December 27, 2020). Section 125 establishes the Rural Emergency Hospital designation. Section 127 makes changes to direct graduate medical education (GME) and indirect GME payments to teaching hospitals that train residents in Rural Training Programs.
Date: 12/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Congress
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Preparing Nurse Faculty, and Addressing the Shortage of Nurse Faculty and Clinical Preceptors: Seventeenth Annual Report to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Congress
Presents policy and programmatic recommendations to address the nurse faculty shortage, improve the education and training of nurses, and strengthen the nursing profession. Discusses some of the persistent underlying causes of the faculty and preceptor shortage, examines past efforts from both government agencies and private organizations to bolster the nurse faculty, and explores the differences between states in nurse educational role requirements.
Date: 12/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice
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