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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Policy

White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis
Provides an overview of the maternal health crisis, including maternal mortality and morbidity disparities, and outlines investments and initiatives to address these issues. Presents goals and actions related to access to maternal and behavioral health services, improving data collection and policy, expanding and diversifying the maternal health workforce, and strengthening economic and social supports.
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: The White House
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2022 Legislative and Policy Agenda for Indian Health
Provides policy recommendations from the National Indian Health Board regarding tribal health issues. Addresses health equity, behavioral health, emergency preparedness and response, tribal healthcare workforce, access to quality healthcare, and more.
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Indian Health Board
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The Pennsylvania Rural Health Model (PARHM): Second Annual Evaluation Report
Evaluates the second year of the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model (PARHM), an initiative designed to test if global budgets can help rural hospitals improve their financial viability, provide flexibility to meet locally defined community health needs, and reduce overall healthcare spending. Provides an overview of the model and describes the implementation experience of participating hospitals and payers. Presents a descriptive quantitative assessment of financial performance, spending and utilization, access to care, and quality of care outcomes during the second performance year.
Additional links: Appendix, Findings at a Glance
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, NORC at the University of Chicago
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Answering The Call: 988 - A New Vision for Crisis Response
Discuss three areas important to implementing the 988 mental health crisis response number and behavioral health crisis response: interagency collaboration, the behavioral health workforce, and financing. Offers policy recommendations for developing a comprehensive crisis response system. Discusses rural considerations and challenges throughout.
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Bipartisan Policy Center
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MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System, June 2022
Evaluates Medicare payment issues and provides recommendations to the U.S. Congress. Chapter 2 presents a report on access to care for beneficiaries in Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs), who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, or have multiple chronic conditions. Also includes chapters on alternative payment models, safety net providers, the cost of drugs covered under Medicare Part B, the accuracy of Medicare Advantage payments, the alignment of fee-for-service payment rates across ambulatory settings, and segmentation in the stand-alone Part D plan market.
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Report to Congress on Medicaid and CHIP, June 2022
Semi-annual report to Congress from the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC). Discusses access to care, the oversight and transparency of managed care directed payments, access to vaccines for adult Medicaid beneficiaries, how Medicaid policy can be used to support the adoption of health IT among behavioral health providers, care integration for people who are dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare, and advancing health equity in Medicaid. Includes rural references throughout.
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission
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Transportation Equity for Older Adults
Explores equity concerns regarding transportation for older adults. Presents a framework for communities to assess how the transportation needs of older adults are being met. Discusses potential solutions to improve transportation equity in communities. Highlights challenges to accessible transportation in rural areas.
Author(s): Laura Fraade-Blanar, Ryan Best, Regina A. Shih
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: RAND Corporation
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State Innovation Model Testing Awards from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center: Highlighting Rural Focus
Summarizes the activities and accomplishments of rural-specific State Innovation Models (SIM) in 11 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Oregon, and Vermont. Describes the SIM initiative, which began in 2012 to support states committed to designing and testing strategies for payment model and delivery system reform.
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Value
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Geographic and Ethnic Disparities among U.S.- Mexico Border Residents
Slides providing an overview on the U.S.-Mexico border with information on policy history, rural counties, and demographic breakdowns with urban versus rural comparisons. Discusses issues such as borderland social determinants of health, health disparities, and lack of access to healthcare.
Author(s): Janice C. Probst, Elizabeth Crouch, Mary-Katherine McNatt, Myriam Torres
Date: 05/2022
Type: Presentation Slides
Sponsoring organization: Rural and Minority Health Research Center (formerly the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center)
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The Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion, Social Disadvantage, and the Practice Location Choices of New General Internists
Examines levels of social disadvantage in states that lost general internal medicine physicians (internists) and states that gained internists after Medicaid expansion. Analyzes 32,102 internists who established their first practice between 2009 and 2019 and their location of choice. Outlines characteristics of internist location choices by population demographics such as age, race and ethnicity, education levels, income levels, social disadvantage level, medical school availability, and rurality.
Author(s): José J. Escarce, Gregory D. Wozniak, Stavros Tsipas, et al.
Citation: Medical Care, 60(5), 342-350
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
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