Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Policy
Getting Started with the Quality Payment Program: An Overview of MIPS for Small, Rural, and Underserved Practices
Provides a webinar recording discussing the effects of the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) on small, rural, and underserved practices. Includes sections on eligibility, participation, reporting, performance categories, and submission and scoring methods. Outlines specific eligibility requirements for Rural Health Clinics (RHCs), Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), and provides a checklist for preparing and participating in MIPS.
Additional links: Presentation Slides, Transcript, Webinar Playlist by Section
Date: 02/2017
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Provides a webinar recording discussing the effects of the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) on small, rural, and underserved practices. Includes sections on eligibility, participation, reporting, performance categories, and submission and scoring methods. Outlines specific eligibility requirements for Rural Health Clinics (RHCs), Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), and provides a checklist for preparing and participating in MIPS.
Additional links: Presentation Slides, Transcript, Webinar Playlist by Section
Date: 02/2017
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Third Annual Report: HCIA Disease-Specific Evaluation
Findings from the third year for 18 Health Care Innovation Awards Round One projects targeting patient populations with specific diseases. Provides information on program effectiveness based on Medicare and Medicaid claims data and awardee-collected data. Includes projects that serve a variety of rural areas and address conditions such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and chronic pain. Approaches discussed include care coordination, education, and telehealth.
Additional links: Addendum, June 2017
Date: 02/2017
Sponsoring organizations: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, NORC at the University of Chicago
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Findings from the third year for 18 Health Care Innovation Awards Round One projects targeting patient populations with specific diseases. Provides information on program effectiveness based on Medicare and Medicaid claims data and awardee-collected data. Includes projects that serve a variety of rural areas and address conditions such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and chronic pain. Approaches discussed include care coordination, education, and telehealth.
Additional links: Addendum, June 2017
Date: 02/2017
Sponsoring organizations: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, NORC at the University of Chicago
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HCIA Complex/High-Risk Patient Targeting: Third Annual Report
Third annual evaluations of Health Care Innovation Awards Round One projects focused on patients with medically complex conditions at high risk for hospitalization, re-hospitalization, emergency department visits, or nursing home stays. Presents program effectiveness findings based on Medicare and Medicaid claims data, surveys, site visits, and interviews. Several projects serve rural areas, offering caregiver education and support, telehealth services, and various care coordination approaches.
Additional links: Addendum, April 2017
Date: 02/2017
Sponsoring organizations: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, NORC at the University of Chicago
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Third annual evaluations of Health Care Innovation Awards Round One projects focused on patients with medically complex conditions at high risk for hospitalization, re-hospitalization, emergency department visits, or nursing home stays. Presents program effectiveness findings based on Medicare and Medicaid claims data, surveys, site visits, and interviews. Several projects serve rural areas, offering caregiver education and support, telehealth services, and various care coordination approaches.
Additional links: Addendum, April 2017
Date: 02/2017
Sponsoring organizations: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, NORC at the University of Chicago
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Changes in Individual and Small Group Behavioral Health Coverage Following the Enactment of Parity Requirements: Final Report
Examines the impact of extending parity protections for behavioral health coverage in 2014 to individual and small group plans, requiring them to cover behavioral health treatments at the same level as medical/surgical services. Addresses additional barriers for rural areas, such as network adequacy and shortages of psychiatrists.
Author(s): Alexander J. Cowell, Shivaani Prakash, Alan Barnosky, Brendan Wedehase, Allison Briggs
Date: 01/2017
Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
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Examines the impact of extending parity protections for behavioral health coverage in 2014 to individual and small group plans, requiring them to cover behavioral health treatments at the same level as medical/surgical services. Addresses additional barriers for rural areas, such as network adequacy and shortages of psychiatrists.
Author(s): Alexander J. Cowell, Shivaani Prakash, Alan Barnosky, Brendan Wedehase, Allison Briggs
Date: 01/2017
Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
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A Community Partnership to Respond to the Heroin and Opioid Abuse Epidemic
Discusses the community response to heroin and opioid abuse in rural Carlton County, Minnesota. Details the county's collaboration with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and St. Louis County to form the Carlton County Drug Abuse Task Force.
Author(s): Laura C. Palombi, Joe Vargo, Laura Bennett, et al.
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 33(1), 110-113
Date: 01/2017
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Discusses the community response to heroin and opioid abuse in rural Carlton County, Minnesota. Details the county's collaboration with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and St. Louis County to form the Carlton County Drug Abuse Task Force.
Author(s): Laura C. Palombi, Joe Vargo, Laura Bennett, et al.
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 33(1), 110-113
Date: 01/2017
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Evaluating the HCIA - Behavioral Health/Substance Abuse Awards: Third Annual Report
Third annual evaluations of 10 Health Care Innovation Awards Round One projects focused on mental health and substance abuse services. Awardee-specific chapters focus on program objectives, implementation experiences, and participant outcomes. Programs include HealthLinkNow, which uses telehealth to provide behavioral care services in rural areas, and the Prevention and Recovery in Early Psychosis Program, which was expanded to serve to rural counties in California.
Additional links: Addendum, July 2017
Date: 01/2017
Sponsoring organizations: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mathematica Policy Research
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Third annual evaluations of 10 Health Care Innovation Awards Round One projects focused on mental health and substance abuse services. Awardee-specific chapters focus on program objectives, implementation experiences, and participant outcomes. Programs include HealthLinkNow, which uses telehealth to provide behavioral care services in rural areas, and the Prevention and Recovery in Early Psychosis Program, which was expanded to serve to rural counties in California.
Additional links: Addendum, July 2017
Date: 01/2017
Sponsoring organizations: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mathematica Policy Research
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Social Determinants of Health
Policy brief informed by a September 2016 National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services meeting held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with site visits to update the committee about factors that affect health outcomes. Identifies emerging payment models and financing strategies, and provides policy recommendations for addressing the social determinants of health in rural communities.
Date: 01/2017
Sponsoring organization: National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services
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Policy brief informed by a September 2016 National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services meeting held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with site visits to update the committee about factors that affect health outcomes. Identifies emerging payment models and financing strategies, and provides policy recommendations for addressing the social determinants of health in rural communities.
Date: 01/2017
Sponsoring organization: National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services
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Community Health Centers: Recent Growth and the Role of the ACA
Uses 2015 federal data on health centers and survey results from the 2016 Survey of Health Centers' Experiences and Activities to provide an overview of health centers and their patients. Compares health centers in Medicaid expansion and non-expansion states, covering topics such as revenue sources, service capacity, patient demographics, patient health coverage, and more. Also discusses the distribution and impact of health centers in rural and medically underserved communities.
Author(s): Sara Rosenbaum, Julia Paradise, Anne Markus, et al.
Date: 01/2017
Sponsoring organization: KFF
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Uses 2015 federal data on health centers and survey results from the 2016 Survey of Health Centers' Experiences and Activities to provide an overview of health centers and their patients. Compares health centers in Medicaid expansion and non-expansion states, covering topics such as revenue sources, service capacity, patient demographics, patient health coverage, and more. Also discusses the distribution and impact of health centers in rural and medically underserved communities.
Author(s): Sara Rosenbaum, Julia Paradise, Anne Markus, et al.
Date: 01/2017
Sponsoring organization: KFF
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Housing Needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives in Tribal Areas: A Report From the Assessment of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Housing Needs
Provides an overview of housing conditions and needs among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) households in tribal areas. Includes AI/AN demographic, social, and economic characteristics. Also discusses housing produced by tribes using HUD housing funds available through the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA) of 1996.
Additional links: Executive Summary
Author(s): Nancy Pindus, G. Thomas Kingsley, Jennifer Biess, et al.
Date: 01/2017
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
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Provides an overview of housing conditions and needs among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) households in tribal areas. Includes AI/AN demographic, social, and economic characteristics. Also discusses housing produced by tribes using HUD housing funds available through the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA) of 1996.
Additional links: Executive Summary
Author(s): Nancy Pindus, G. Thomas Kingsley, Jennifer Biess, et al.
Date: 01/2017
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
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Accounting for Social Risk Factors in Medicare Payment
Fifth and final report in a series designed to identify social risk factors that affect the health outcomes of Medicare beneficiaries and methods to account for these factors in Medicare payment programs. Offers thoughts about selecting the best methods to account for social risk factors and achieve policy goals. Chapter 2 includes a discussion about urbanicity and rurality, and suggests that a beneficiary's place of residence is a stronger indicator of social risk than their provider's location. Report was assembled by an ad hoc committee under the direction of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Committee on Accounting for Socioeconomic Status in Medicare Payment Programs
Date: 01/2017
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Fifth and final report in a series designed to identify social risk factors that affect the health outcomes of Medicare beneficiaries and methods to account for these factors in Medicare payment programs. Offers thoughts about selecting the best methods to account for social risk factors and achieve policy goals. Chapter 2 includes a discussion about urbanicity and rurality, and suggests that a beneficiary's place of residence is a stronger indicator of social risk than their provider's location. Report was assembled by an ad hoc committee under the direction of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Committee on Accounting for Socioeconomic Status in Medicare Payment Programs
Date: 01/2017
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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