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Modernizing Rural Health Care: Coverage, quality and innovation

August 3, 2011 Comments off

Modernizing Rural Health Care: Coverage, quality and innovation (PDF)
Source: UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform & Modernization

Why produce a paper on rural health care? First, because it’s a topic that affects many millions of people. Indeed, if rural America were its own country, its population would be larger than nearly 90 percent of the world’s nations. And second, because although rural communities face many of the same challenges as the rest of America, they also face some unique ones — particularly when it comes to health and health care.

This working paper sets out to examine the distinctive health needs of rural populations, and how well the health care system is currently able to respond. It presents new data on rural care quality; on the views of people living in rural areas; and what their physicians see as the major challenges to overcome. Solutions to these challenges will need to embrace a wide spectrum of practical and complementary approaches, recognizing the heterogeneity of rural communities. For that reason, this working paper also draws on the ‘real world’ experience of innovative rural care systems and of UnitedHealth Group, in fields as varied as rural provider payment reform, rural telemedicine, the provision of mobile clinics, and support for the critical role played by nurses in rural communities.

Categories: health and health care, health care reform, rural issues, UnitedHealth
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