By Sarah Jane Tribble – Federal lawmakers face a year-end deadline to solidify or scuttle an array of covid-era payment changes for telehealth services that include allowing people to stay in their homes to see a doctor or therapist.
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By Rae Ellen Bichell – As one of the nation’s more than 1,000 federally designated primary care shortage areas, Costilla County has many carrots to dangle in front of medical providers willing to practice there, including federal student loan repayments, bonus Medicare payments, and expedited visas for foreign clinicians.
By Arielle Zionts – Rural America has a shortage of health care providers. The Indian Health Service, which serves Indigenous patients in mostly rural areas, has also struggled to recruit and retain staff. Rural residents make up about 14% of the U.S. population but fewer than 5% of incoming medical students, according to a study of 2017 data.
By Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez – Anger, devastation, and concern for her patients washed over Dr. Bridget Martinez as she learned that her residency training program in rural northeastern Nevada would be shuttered. The doctor in training remembered telling one of her patients that, come July of this year, she would no longer be her physician.
By Dan Matthews – Rapidly evolving healthcare technology has the potential to improve the patient experience and close the care gap between urban and rural patients. These advancements have been funded by HHS, most recently in the form of a $9 million grant to launch the RMOMS program.
As part of its commitment to eliminating inequities and improving access to care for historically marginalized communities across the nation, the AMA bolstered policy aimed at addressing the health needs of rural populations—enhancing access to care through educational strategies for rural physician workforce expansion.
By Lauren Weber – Rural Americans are dying of covid at more than twice the rate of their urban counterparts — a divide that health experts say is likely to widen as access to medical care shrinks for a population that tends to be older, sicker, heavier, poorer and less vaccinated.
In a letter sent to Congress, 13 leading healthcare organizations, including the National Association of ACOs, expressed their strong support for a recently reintroduced bill that fixes a flaw in the way financial targets, or benchmarks, are set for Medicare accountable care organizations.
The FCC, HHS, and USDA announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together on the Rural Telehealth Initiative, a joint effort to collaborate and share information to address health disparities, resolve service provider challenges, and promote broadband services and technology to rural areas in America.