The Rural Initiative - Introduction
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson rolls out the report "One Department Serving Rural America" July 26, 2002 at the Department's Summit for Rural America outside of Denver.
"One Department Serving Rural America"
HHS is taking bold steps for rural America. Secretary Thompson is committed to improving service to rural communities and has aggressively championed institutional changes that will ensure a sea change in the Department's services and consultation.
"We need to improve services to rural Americans," Secretary Thompson said at the rollout on July 26th, 2002 of his Rural Taskforce's report "One Department Serving Rural America."
"These bold next steps will help us coordinate our efforts with the states, local and tribal governments and provide life saving and life enhancing services to millions of Americans."
The report highlights new approaches to improve five key areas:
- Improving access to services.
- Strengthening rural families.
- Supporting rural economic development.
- Improving coordination among state, local and tribal governments.
- Conducting more and better research to inform local and federal policy-makers about the needs of rural communities.
The report also warns that many rural providers feel that federal regulations generally designed for urban and suburban areas are compromising their ability to give high quality services to local residents.
"For too long our rural health care and social service providers have been burdened with rules and regulations designed for urban and suburban communities," Secretary Thompson said. "Today we begin to change that. Today we begin to look at rural communities as something unique and independent -- not as 'small cities'."
Actions announced on July 26th include:
- The creation of a "single point of entry" within HHS to provide information and technical assistance to rural communities and to coordinate rural policy initiatives across the department and its agencies, as well as with local, state and tribal governments.
- A commitment to ensure that annual HHS budget development, legislative, and Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) processes include a specific focus on serving rural America.
- A new approach to better determine HHS' investments in specific communities and populations, including the use of geographic information systems to identify communities with unmet needs.
- The expansion of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health to include rural social services. The 16-member committee, chaired by former South Carolina Governor David Beasley, includes nationally recognized rural health experts in the fields of medicine, nursing, oral health, mental health, administration, finance, law, research, business and public health.
- The establishment of an ongoing department-wide workgroup to follow up on proposed strategies.
- $23 million to states through the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program, focusing on the smallest most rural hospitals. More than 600 rural communities have benefited from this program over the past three years as their hospitals, called critical access hospitals, have received enhanced reimbursements. As the program continues, more rural communities will have the opportunity to participate in the program.
- $15 million in new grants to improve the quality of care in more than 1,000 small rural and frontier hospitals across the country. These funds will provide hospitals that have fewer than 50 beds with resources to meet the challenges of improving their performance and complying with the administrative simplification requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996.
- $8 million to support the 50 state Offices of Rural Health. State Offices of Rural Health provide technical assistance to rural and frontier communities, coordinate statewide rural health activities, and work to recruit and retain rural health care providers.
At the Secretary's rollout (left to right) Marcia McLaughlin of Minnesota Rural Partners, Dr. Flo Raitano of the Colorado Rural Development Council, and Dianne McSwain, HHS Rural Specialist.
The rural report is the work of a task force created by Secretary Thompson as part of his Initiative on Rural America announced last July. He charged the department-wide task force to explore ways to breakdown barriers and improve health and social services to rural America.
The task force was coordinated by HHS' Office of Rural Health Policy, within the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and the Department's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.
The task force's full report is available at http://www.ruralhealth.hrsa.gov.
To read Secretary Thompson's Speech at the HHS Rural Summit.
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