Reinventing Rural Health Care - A Case Study of Seven Upper Midwest States

As rural communities continue to lack access to physicians and rural hospitals and as health centers struggle to keep their doors open, strengthening the financial viability of the rural health care system has remained priority number one for rural communities and rural lawmakers. [...] The release of various reports in the new millennium – such as To Err is Human9 and Crossing the Quality Chasm10 – focused the public and policymakers on the urgent need to improve patient safety and reform the health care delivery system. [...] The posture of “stabilize first and then consider innovating” set the stage for the rural legislative and regulatory effort of recent years and continues to impact the rural health policy outlook in the current Congress and administration. [...] Although some of the difference in performance may be within hospitals’ control, the size of the gap suggests that the payment system does not recognize factors that have a greater effect on the costs of rural hospitals.”13 To begin tackling rural health challenges, key lawmakers reinvigorated caucuses devoted to rural health that had long been dormant in the House and Senate. [...] The purpose of the delivery redesign is to improve quality of care, increase access to preventive care, and create savings to the Medicare program for the rural communities.