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Healthcare Access in Rural Communities – Resources

Selected recent or important resources focusing on Healthcare Access in Rural Communities.

Left Out: Barriers to Health Equity for Rural and Underserved Communities
Summarizes responses to a Request for Information from the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee's Rural and Underserved Communities Health Task Force. Describes factors contributing to healthcare challenges in rural areas, including demographics, social and structural determinants of health, insurance coverage, access to care, and workforce shortages. Highlights promising models of healthcare delivery in rural areas. Includes state-by-state health equity maps.
Additional links: State and Territory Health Equity Maps, Summary
Date: 07/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: House Ways and Means Committee
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Improving Rural Health: State Policy Options for Increasing Access to Care
Discusses strategies from state legislatures and other stakeholders to increase access to healthcare in rural areas. Focuses on policies and policy options for state legislatures in three areas: improving health insurance coverage, safeguarding rural health facilities, and changing rural healthcare delivery. Features examples from Colorado, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Author(s): Jack Pitsor
Date: 06/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Conference of State Legislatures
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Availability of Health Insurance Literacy Resources Fails to Meet Consumer Needs in Rural, Appalachian Communities: Implications for State Medicaid Waivers
Reports on the availability of health system and community‐based programs promoting health insurance literacy and supporting informed consumer healthcare decision making in rural Kentucky. Findings are based on focus groups and interviews conducted with healthcare providers, community health workers, patient navigators, and others primarily serving rural Appalachian counties in the state.
Author(s): Jean Edward, Robin Thompson, Andrea Jaramillo
Citation: Journal of Rural Health
Date: 06/2020
Type: Document
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Access to Medicare Part D Plans: A Comparison of Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas
Policy brief focusing on the types of Medicare Part D plans offered in metropolitan, micropolitan, and noncore locations. Offers comparisons between stand-alone plans and Medicare Advantage plans, in terms of premiums, benefits, and the manner in which these plans are offered.
Author(s): Mochamad Nataliansyah, Abiodun Salako, Fred Ullrich, Keith Mueller,
Date: 05/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
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Hospital Access in the Fifth District and COVID-19
Examines hospital access in West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, and Washington D.C. Discusses concerns raised by the COVID-19 pandemic and provides state- and county-level statistics and data on number of hospital beds per capita, average distance to nearest hospitals, and more.
Author(s): Surekha Carpenter, Tim Sablik
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
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Rural-Urban Differences in the Association Between Individual, Facility, and Clinical Characteristics and Travel Time for Cancer Treatment
Examines the association of patient, facility, and clinical characteristics with round trip travel times for all types of cancer patients living in rural and urban areas with the objective to help providers understand which patients may be most in need of resources to assist with travel.
Author(s): Joel E. Segel, Eugene J. Lengerich
Citation: BMC Public Health, 20(1),196
Date: 02/2020
Type: Document
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Williamson Health and Wellness Center: Williamson, WV
Highlights a Community-Driven Health Equity Action Plan as implemented by the Williamson Health and Wellness Center in West Virginia. Details the goals and focus of the program.
Additional links: Summary
Date: 02/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Academy of Medicine
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Gorge Health Equity Collaborative: Columbia Gorge Region, OR and WA
Presents a Community-Driven Health Equity Action Plan as implemented by the Gorge Health Equity Collaborative in Washington and Oregon. Highlights health and healthcare access of children and adults in the Columbia Gorge region.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 02/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Academy of Medicine
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Cancer Surveillance and Access to Care in Rural America
Webinar recording discusses a study on access to cancer care in rural areas nationally and in South Carolina. Analyzes travel distance to receive care for colorectal and cervical cancer care across the country and compares it to data on access to colorectal cancer care in South Carolina.
Additional links: Presentation Slides, Webinar Transcript
Date: 02/2020
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organizations: Rural and Minority Health Research Center (formerly the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center), Rural Health Research Gateway
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Infants Without Health Insurance: Racial/Ethnic and Rural/Urban Disparities in Infant Households' Insurance Coverage
Explores how the uneven expansion of Medicaid affects the racial/ethnic health insurance coverage for infants across rural and urban areas in the U.S. Highlights spatial patterns in health insurance coverage among infants, and examines the probability that an infant will be born without health insurance coverage using 2011-2015 American Community Survey (ACS) data and logistic regression.
Author(s): Scott R. Sanders, Michael R. Cope, Paige N. Park, Wesley Jeffery, Jorden E. Jackson
Citation: PLoS ONE, 15(1)
Date: 01/2020
Type: Document
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Last Updated: 9/9/2024