View Research Topics | View Complete Article List | Visit the Library
NGPRDC - Health Care
2007-11-04
Health care is experiencing dramatic policy and market driven changes. Even so, it continues to be a growth industry. Its growth over the next several decades will be due largely to the nation's aging population and will create many opportunities for rural communities. Rural areas must think creatively about how to produce business possibilities from this growth, and simultaneously recognize that these opportunities will develop within a remarkably different type of health care industry.
The challenge for rural citizens and leaders will be to understand, capitalize on, and adapt to the new environment within which health care operates. It will require new ways of thinking, new business partnerships, and networking with neighboring communities and/or urban providers. It will also require visionary thinking and strategic planning to capitalize on health care in a way that long-term sustainability of both the local economy and health care service provisions are enhanced.
The Health Care Work Group's mission was to identify opportunities for regional action necessary to create sustainable health care infrastructure in rural communities. Strong rural communities must have access to health care services, and affordable health insurance to support those services, throughout the region. Public and private partnerships, as well as application of new models of care and telecommunication technology, can support health systems, even in very remote areas.
A total of seven recommendations were developed. Some of the recommendations are programmatic in nature and focus on programmatic development and/or enhancement. Others emphasize policy or regulatory provisions. The recommendations put forward approaches to strengthening the viability of rural delivery systems to operate in a market environment so that access to care in the future is assured. The recommendations also seek solutions to the need for insurance coverage for rural residents. New models of care, directed at achieving an increased emphasis on wellness services and behaviors, and the development of appropriate and affordable telecommunications technology to strengthen rural health systems are called for, as are mechanisms for greater involvement and influence of rural residents in determining the nature of their health care system. A variety of partnerships are offered to carry forward the Commission's recommendations.
Within this context and understanding the Health Care Work Group has identified seven specific items to empower rural communities over the next decade.
The Work Group recommends establishment of a region-wide wellness transition demonstration and dissemination program.
The Work Group recommends that the five states in the region explore the creation of a multi-state health insurance purchasing cooperative.
The Work Group recommends that Congress replace the income tax exemption for employer paid health insurance with a refundable tax credit.
The Work Group recommends that state, local and tribal governments, in the region recognize their leverage as purchasers of health care services and examine the potential to use their leverage to address access and affordability on behalf of their constituents.
The work group recommends that legislative and regulatory bodies in the region work together to ensure that state regulatory policies affecting markets that cross state lines are compatible.
The region's health care delivery agents aggressively move forward to install telecommunication and data interchange systems within their operations.
The Work Group recommends that community health development resources be made available to rural communities in the region.
