Thompson Announces New Plan To Help Improve Rural Health Services
HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson last week announced new actions the department will take to improve access to and quality of health services in rural areas of the country, the Denver Post reports. Thompson detailed the plan during an address to the Colorado Rural Health Conference (Sherry, Denver Post, 7/28). The plan, based on recommendations from the department's Rural Task Force, includes:
- Awarding $23 million to the smallest, most rural hospitals
-- called critical access hospitals -- under the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program;
- Releasing $15 million in grants to more than 1,000 small, rural and frontier hospitals to help them improve quality of care and comply with the provisions under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996;
- Giving the 50 state Offices of Rural Health, which provide various support services to rural and frontier communities, $8 million in funding;
- Creating a "single point of entry" agency within HHS to provide support services to rural communities and coordinate activities to improve rural health;
- Making a commitment that processes to develop the HHS budget, any legislation recommendations and the Government Performance and Results Act incorporate a specific focus on rural areas of the nation; and
- Expanding the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health to include a focus on rural social services, not just health services (HHS
release, 7/26).
This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
