Why Rural Research Is Important—And How Foundations Can Support It by Kathleen Belanger
Summer 2012 (The Rural Monitor) - In my last column, I discussed the minimal donations by American philanthropy to rural communities. One of the barriers to donating, cited in the report, Rural Philanthropy: Building Dialogue from Within, is the perceived and actual capacity of rural non-profits to deliver programs effectively, and to demonstrate evidence of effective service delivery. In the last several years, there’s been an increasing emphasis on evidence-based practice in health and human services. This emphasis has evolved from the writings of social scientist Donald Campbell, who promoted the idea of science informing policy and the examination of social problems using rigorous scientific methods, and by the passage of The Government Performance and Review Act, signed into law in 1993 and revised in 2010, which requires performance planning, and monitoring and evaluation of federal programs.
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More from RAC's The Rural Monitor - Summer 2012
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Phones Enable Smart Wound Care in Rural Areas
• Services Integration Strengthens Rural EMS
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Rural Spotlight: An Interview with Dennis Berens
ABPS Presents Rural Physician Workforce Initiative
August 20, 2012 (NRHA e-mail) - The American Board of Physician Specialties (ABPS) believes all patients, regardless of where they live, deserve to be treated by an experienced board certified physician. ABPS has created the Rural Physician Workforce Initiative as an incentive for rural physicians to demonstrate their mastery in the core body of knowledge of the medical specialty they practice.
This unique initiative enables qualified rural physicians to become board certified in the specialty they practice at a professional courtesy rate for a limited time. Qualifying physicians must submit a completed ABPS board certification application in the specialty they practice by September 30, 2013.
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New Book Released: Rural Populations and Health
August 21, 2012 (Amazon.com) - Health-related disparities remain a persistent, serious problem across the nation's more than 60 million rural residents. Rural Populations and Health provides an overview of the critical issues surrounding rural health and offers a strong theoretical and evidence-based rationale for rectifying rural health disparities in the United States.
This edited collection includes a comprehensive examination of myriad issues in rural health and rural health care services, as well as a road map for reducing disparities, building capacity and collaboration, and applying prevention research in rural areas. This textbook offers a review of rural health systems in Colorado, Kentucky, Alabama, and Iowa, and features contributions from key leaders in rural public health throughout the United States.
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Rural Hospitals Revived
by Dr. Wayne Myers
August 20, 2012 (Daily Yonder) - I propose that hospitals try to keep all the people in their communities healthy.
We've known for decades that we should be paying more attention to preventing disease, yet very little has actually been done. If we want to save money on health care we should be keeping people from getting sick, but treating heart disease pays very well. Preventing it doesn't.
This is old stuff. When the Health Planning Act of 1974 was getting rolling, a widely used video cartoon featured a community building a marvelous system for rescuing people who fell off a cliff into a river. Boats could race downstream after drowning victims, fish them out, get them into ambulances and whisk them to the local hospital with wonderful efficiency. They were very proud of their system.
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Nonprofit Health Care Orgs Audited More than For-Profits
by Ruth McCambridge
August 16, 2012 (NonprofitQuarterly.org) - A recent report, “Auditing the Auditors,” by the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) has found that among health care providers, nonprofits are audited more than for-profits. According to the HCCA, “Being audited by two different agencies looking at the same problem was reported by 42% of nonprofits, as compared to just 25% of for profits. In addition they report undergoing more audits than for profits.”
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HHS partners with pharmacies to educate Medicare beneficiaries about new health benefits
August 15, 2012 (HHS News Release) - Today, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced partnerships with several pharmacies to help customers learn about new Medicare benefits available to them under the Affordable Care Act – the health care law. These partnerships – with CVS Caremark, Walgreens, Thrifty White, Walmart, and Sam’s Club – will provide Medicare beneficiaries a range of educational materials on newly available preventive services, as well as savings on prescription drug spending in the “donut hole” coverage gap. At a CVS in Jacksonville, Secretary Sebelius discussed the new preventive services and received a free blood pressure reading at the CVS MinuteClinic.
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Health-Care Reform and the ‘Doctor Shortage’
by Uwe E. Reinhardt
August 17, 2012 (Economix) - “Doctor Shortage Likely to Worsen With Health Law,” read the alarming headline of a recent article in The New York Times. The article cites a study by the authoritative Association of American Medical Colleges, according to which by 2025 the nation’s demand for doctors active in patient care will be 916,000, while the projected supply is 785,400. The report thus anticipates a shortage of 130,600 patient-care doctors, of which about half represent primary-care physicians.
These figures assume that the Affordable Care Act of 2010 will be implemented as intended. According to the Times article, the association has estimated that the extension of health-insurance coverage under the new law to slightly more than 30 million otherwise uninsured Americans will increase the doctor shortage by 30,000 for any future year, beginning in 2015.
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Hospitals on the Path to Accountable Care: Highlights from a 2011 National Survey of Hospital Readiness to Participate in an Accountable Care Organization
August 17, 2012 (The Commonwealth Fund) - Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are forming in communities across the country. In ACOs, health care providers take responsibility for a defined patient population, coordinate their care across settings, and are held jointly accountable for the quality and cost of care. This issue brief reports on results from a survey that assesses hospitals’ readiness to participate in ACOs. Results show we are at the beginning of the ACO adoption curve. As of September 2011, only 13 percent of hospital respondents reported participating in an ACO or planning to participate within a year, while 75 percent reported not considering participation at all. Survey results indicate that physician-led ACOs are the second most common governance model, far exceeding payer-led models, highlighting an encouraging paradigm shift away from acute care and toward primary care. Findings also point to significant gaps, including the infrastructure needed to take on financial risks and to manage population health.
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Related
• Survey: Few ACOs Ready For Financial Risk (Kaiser Health News, August 17, 2012)
CMS Launches Electronic Quality Reporting Pilot For Hospitals
by Ken Terry
August 14, 2012 (InformationWeek Healthcare) - While designed to help hospitals meet Meaningful Use criteria, the program may someday allow them to report data for other programs.
According to an announcement on CMS's QualityNet site, hospitals and critical access hospitals registered for the Medicare incentive program can begin testing their ability to send quality data directly from their EHRs to CMS. From Oct. 1 to Nov. 30, the last two months in which hospitals can attest to Meaningful Use and receive 2012 payments under the Medicare program, they can transmit this data to CMS on a "production basis" to meet the quality reporting criteria.
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Quality Reporting for CAHs and Rural PPS Hospitals: The Potential Impact of Composite Measures
July 2012 (Upper Midwest Rural Health Research Center) - This policy brief assesses the use of composite scores for public reporting of quality measures as one way of addressing the low volume issue for small rural hospitals, including Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and Rural Prospective Payment System (PPS) hospitals.
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Real health reform cannot happen without a primary care foundation
by Andrew Morris-Singer, MD
August 2012 (KevinMD.com) - Annie Lowrey’s July 28 article “Doctor shortage likely to worsen with health law” in the New York Times noted the growing shortage of primary care doctors particularly in economically disadvantaged communities, both in rural and inner-city America. This problem will likely get worse before it gets better as more Americans gain coverage and seek a regular source of care. As the article suggests, training more doctors and incentivizing them to pursue careers in primary care will be a key part of the solution. And it will require a multipronged campaign, using both some of the traditional strategies for workforce renewal and a few unique tactics not typically deployed in efforts to fix health care.
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Cancer.org: Join Our Cancer Prevention Study
If you've ever known someone with cancer, you know that birthdays are a very significant milestone. There are nearly 12 million people in America who have survived cancer - and countless more who have avoided it - who will be celebrating birthdays this year. You can join the movement for more birthdays and fight back against cancer by enrolling in a new research study called the Cancer Prevention Study - 3 (CPS-3).
The American Cancer Society's Epidemiology Research Program is inviting men and women between the ages of 30 and 65 years who have no personal history of cancer to join this historic research study. The ultimate goal is to enroll at least 300,000 adults from various racial/ethnic backgrounds from across the U.S. By joining CPS-3, you can help us understand how to prevent cancer, which will save lives and give people more of their most precious resource: time. More time with their families and friends, more memories, more celebrations . . . and more birthdays.
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