MHA's Center for Rural Health

A Comparison of Rural Hospitals with Special Medicare Payment Provisions to Urban and Rural Hospitals Paid Under Prospective Payment

This final report compares the financial performance and condition of rural hospitals with special Medicare payment provisions to urban and rural hospitals paid under prospective payment (UPPS and R-PPS hospitals, respectively). Nine ratios from the three most common categories of ratios used in financial statement analysis (profitability, liquidity, and capital structure) as well as four other ratios that are commonly used to evaluate rural hospital financial performance are assessed.

The Future of Family Medicine and Implications for Rural Primary Care Physician Supply

This policy report examines the rural primary care physician shortage, the effect of recent trends in specialty choice on provider supply, and major trends that are changing the dynamics of rural health care delivery. It concludes with a discussion of how private efforts and federal and state policy options can help ensure high-quality health care in rural America.

CMS seeks up to 20 applicants for rural hospital demonstration program

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services seeks up to 20 additional hospitals to participate in Medicare’s Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program, which pays eligible small rural hospitals for covered inpatient hospital services under a cost-based methodology. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act extended the demonstration program by five years and expanded it to 30 hospitals.

Ten hospitals currently participate in the program and will be allowed to continue. To participate, hospitals must have fewer than 51 acute-care inpatient beds and be located among the 20 states with the lowest population density: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

Upon publication of the solicitation notice in the Aug. 30 Federal Register, applications will be accepted for 45 days. For more on the demonstration program, aimed at helping rural hospitals meet the needs of their service areas, visit www.cms.gov.

PC.02.01.05 revisions released that affect CAHs

PC.02.01.05, element of performance (EP) 2, has been updated in order to meet requirements established in the CMS Conditions of Participation (CoP). The Joint Commission announced revisions to this EP this week in order to comply with CMS requirements because, in order to maintain deeming authority through CMS, Joint Commission standards must be at least as stringent as the CoPs. This rule applies to critical access hospitals accredited by The Joint Commission.

Click here to read more.

HHS to Give $32 Million for Rural Healthcare Access

More than $22 million will go to the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program, which supports improvements in healthcare quality for any of 1,300 critical access hospitals, defined as hospitals with no more than 25 beds.

Read more here.

Healing Rural Patients With A Dose Of Broadband

Millions of Americans who live in rural areas travel long distances to get health care. Or they may go without it. But high-speed Internet connections now make it possible to bring a doctor's expertise to patients in far-off places, if those places are connected.

As part of its National Broadband Plan, the Federal Communications Commission has pledged $400 million a year to connect nearly 12,000 rural health care providers.

Hear more from NPR here.

White Paper Offers Physician's Perspective on Rural Medicine

HealthLeadersMedia offers the physician's perspective on practicing rural medicine in the context of rural health care data from the federal government and other sources. Entitled Practicing Medicine in Rural America, the white paper highlights a late-2007 physician survey of the same name to which 1,965 U.S. physicians responded.

Read more here.

FREE webinar on rural primary care workforce shortages and challenges

The Gateway project is hosting a webinar on Thursday, Sept. 23, from 1 p.m. until 2 p.m. CDT addressing rural primary care workforce shortages and challenges in the context of recent policy developments. The webinar will feature Rural Health Research Center researchers speaking about their recent publications and work in the field, along with national experts in rural health workforce who will offer a broader context.

The webinar will be free for anyone with access to a telephone and high-speed internet connection. More details will follow over the coming weeks regarding the webinar login information. If you would like to ensure that you don't miss any of this information, please register for the webinar by sending your name and E-mail address to Alex McEllistrem-Evenson at aevenson@medicine.nodak.edu.  

For more information, contact Alex McEllistrem-Evenson, MA Rural Health Research Gateway, at 701-777-6026 or aevenson@medicine.nodak.edu.

What does it take to retain rural doctors?

Nearly 5,000 recent medical school graduates have so far accepted their share of $1 billion in federal grants to pay off tuition and school loans in exchange for providing care to rural and underserved areas. To help meet the needs of about 45 million Americans who live in these hard-to-recruit regions, the National Health Services Corps hopes to draw another 2,800 students next year, though an estimated 27,000 primary-care physicians will be needed. 

Read more here.

ONC releases EHR fact sheets, CMS holds conference calls on incentive programs

The Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT (ONC) has released tip sheets for critical access hospitals on the EHR incentive programs.

To view the fact sheet, visit www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/ and click the appropriate link (e.g.,”Hospitals”) on the left side of the page.

 

In addition, CMS will hold a series of educational conference calls for providers on the EHR incentive programs:

• For eligible professionals: Tuesday, August 10, 2:00-3:30 pm EST
• For hospitals: Wednesday, August 11, 2:00-3:30 pm EST
• For Hospitals and individual practitioners: Thursday, August 12, 2:00-3:30 pm EST

NOTE: Listeners must register in advance for the calls. Visit the CMS website for more information or to register at www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/05_Spotlight_and_Upcoming_Events.asp

 

Materials for the calls will also be available at www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/05_Spotlight_and_Upcoming_Events.asp