The FLEX Monitoring Team (FMT) just released a Brief on rural relevant quality measures for Critical Access Hospitals (CAH). The purpose of the brief is to provide a set of rural relevant quality measure for policy makers and the rural health provider community. It is hoped that in this atmosphere of value based purchasing (VBP) [...]

Today, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., co-chairs of the Congressional Rural Health Coalition, introduced H.R. 3859, the Rural Hospital and Provider Equity (R-HOPE) Act of 2012. This bipartisan bill would help rural communities across America protect and expand access to quality health care. “The quality of health care you receive [...]

As 450 of America’s most passionate advocates are fighting for rural health on Capitol Hill, we thought we’d take a moment to recap some of the memorable (and often unscripted) quotes from the National Rural Health Association’s 23rd annual Rural Health Policy Institute so far: “When you’ve worked on rural health as long as all [...]

Current and potential funding support caught the attention of the more than 450 National Rural Health Association members attending the Rural Health Policy Institute this week in D.C. Earlier today, Mary Wakefield, PhD, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) administrator and former National Rural Health Association member, outlined workforce, education, health information technology, telehealth and [...]

Geography shouldn’t be a determinant of health care quality, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said as she kicked off the National Rural Health Association’s Rural Health Policy Institute this morning. She told a record crowd of rural health professionals from all 50 states that there’s hope in rural health. “When you’ve worked [...]