Tracking State Rural Health Transformation Plans
ϳԹ News is working to collect and post approved plans as more states respond to emails and public records requests for their documents.
The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
ϳԹ News covers the health issues facing people who live in America’s rural reaches.
ϳԹ News is working to collect and post approved plans as more states respond to emails and public records requests for their documents.
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Jorge A. Perez and his management company, EmpowerHMS, helped run an empire of rural hospitals. Now, in a staggering implosion, 12 of them have entered bankruptcy and eight have closed their doors, leaving hundreds of residents without jobs and their communities without lifesaving emergency medical care. So, what happened?
The loss of the longtime hospital in Fort Scott, Kan., forces trauma patients to deal with changing services and expectations.
Residents in Colorado ski resort country found relief from high insurance premiums and high hospital costs by joining forces and negotiating prices directly with the local hospital.
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
As the rural town of Fort Scott, Kan., grapples with the closure of its hospital, cancer patients face new challenges as they try to continue their treatments in different locations.
Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to curtail federally funded research using fetal tissue, the backlash from former Vice President Joe Biden’s support for the anti-abortion Hyde Amendment and how health policy intersects with both trade and immigration policy.
A proposed adjustment to the wage index, used in setting a hospital’s Medicare reimbursement payments, could be a lifeline for some rural facilities.
Deep questions underlie what is happening in Fort Scott, Kan.: Do small communities like this one need a traditional hospital at all? And, if not, what health care do they need?
After depending on the local hospital for more than a century, Fort Scott residents now are trying to cope with life without it.
Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss the latest news about women’s reproductive health policy and the latest skirmish in the debate over “Medicare-for-all”: how hospitals should be paid.
Lauren Weber, one of Kaiser Health News’ new Midwest correspondents, joined St. Louis Public Radio reporter Jeremy Goodwin on “St. Louis on the Air” Friday to discuss how syphilis is making inroads into rural counties across the Midwest and West.
Syphilis is spreading from big cities into rural counties across the Midwest and West. One Missouri clinic has seen more than six times as many cases in the first few months of 2019 compared with the same period last year. Communities grappling with budget cuts and crumbling public health infrastructure also lack experience in fighting the disease.
Celina, Tenn., has long lured retirees, with its scenic hills and affordability. These newcomers help fuel the local economy. But a recent hospital closure makes the town a harder sell.
Some plans are experimenting with the idea of closely tying hospital reimbursement rates to what Medicare pays. The approach could be a game changer in their effort to control health costs.
Health officials and doctors treating patients with HIV welcome the funding push, but warn that the strategies that work in progressive cities don't necessarily translate to rural areas.
Hospitals are now financially rewarded by insurers for safety and efficacy — which often results in patients spending less time as inpatients.
The 25-bed hospital in Crockett, Texas, abruptly closed its doors in 2017, joining the ranks of nearly 100 rural hospitals that have shut down in the past decade. But the community kept the faith and several doctors reopened the facility this year.
Many areas in the U.S. depend on foreign doctors, but bitter political arguments over immigration have sown concerns about limited opportunities for these physicians.
Some residents of remote Surprise Valley in Northern California fear their hospital will close like so many others around the country, as hope wanes for financial support from a Denver entrepreneur. The businessman, Beau Gertz, had planned to raise money through lab billing for faraway patients.
Two Missouri hospitals handed over their operations to a private company that has vastly increased the money the hospitals bring in through their laboratories, even though the lab tests are not done on-site.
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