Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Policy

Comparison of the Rural Health Clinic and Federally Qualified Health Center Programs
Provides a general comparison of the financial components of the Rural Health Clinic (RHC) and Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) programs under Medicare and Medicaid.
Date: 06/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health Resources and Services Administration
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Defining the Term "Frontier Area" for Programs Implemented through the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth
An expert panel report to the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Provides an overview of current frontier definitions and describes the process used to develop a new frontier area definition that could be applied to telehealth programs.
Date: 05/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: University of North Dakota Center for Rural Health
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Foreign Physicians: Preliminary Findings on the Use of J-1 Visa Waivers to Practice in Underserved Areas
Reports preliminary findings regarding the number of J-1 visa waivers requested by states and federal agencies and states' views on the 30-waiver limit and on their willingness to have unused waiver allotments redistributed.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 05/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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Medicaid and Its Importance to Rural Health
Presents an overview of the impact that Medicaid has on rural health. Covers the role of Medicaid in rural areas as a source of health insurance, as a revenue source for rural providers, and as a contributor to the community by supporting its health care system and local economy.
Author(s): Keith J. Mueller, Andrew F. Coburn, A. Clinton MacKinney, et al.
Date: 05/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Policy Research Institute Rural Health Panel
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Telecommunications: Broadband Deployment Is Extensive throughout the United States, but It Is Difficult to Assess the Extent of Deployment Gaps in Rural Areas
Provides information on the current status of broadband deployment and factors that influence the deployment of broadband networks in rural areas. Based on case studies in eight states: Alaska, California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 05/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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Medicare Hospital Pharmaceuticals: Survey Shows Price Variations and Highlights Data Collection Lessons and Outpatient Rate-Setting Challenges for CMS
Analyzes Medicare specified covered outpatient drugs (SCOD) price variation across hospitals. Includes information on prices paid by rural hospitals compared to urban hospitals.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 04/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy, 2006
Annual review of Medicare payment policies, with recommendations to Congress. Discussions of rural aspects of Medicare payment policies are included throughout the report.
Date: 03/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Model Trauma System Planning and Evaluation
Designed to provide trauma care direction to trauma care professionals, including public health officials and health care policy experts, when developing and evaluating trauma systems.
Additional links: Trauma System Self-Assessment Supplemental Tool: Benchmarks, Indicators, and Scoring
Date: 02/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health Resources and Services Administration
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Hospital Quality Data: CMS Needs More Rigorous Methods to Ensure Reliability of Publicly Released Data
Describes how the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) collects hospital quality measures and ways the process could be improved to better ensure the accuracy of the data. Discusses how rural and urban hospital accuracy scores compare.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 02/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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The Institute of Medicine Rural Health Report: Next Steps in Legislation and Programs
Recommends federal policies that will improve patient safety and healthcare quality in rural America. Recommendations address innovative resource redirection and program coordination to increase the value of federal quality improvement programs and ultimately improve the health of rural people and communities.
Author(s): Keith J. Mueller, Andrew F. Coburn, A. Clinton MacKinney, et al.
Date: 02/2006
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Policy Research Institute Rural Health Panel
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