“The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has launched the agency’s first Rural Health Strategy to help improve access to high quality, affordable healthcare in rural communities. The strategy is intended to provide a proactive and strategic focus on healthcare issues across rural America to ensure the nearly one in five individuals who live in these areas have access to care that meets their needs.”
“CMS is organizing and focusing its efforts to apply a rural lens to the vision and work of the agency. The CMS Rural Health Strategy supports CMS’ goal of putting patients first. Through its implementation and continued stakeholder engagement, this initiative will enhance the positive impacts CMS policies have on beneficiaries who live in rural, underserved areas. This Administration understands that one of the keys to ensuring that those who call rural America home are able to achieve their highest level of health is to advance policies and programs that address their unique healthcare needs…”
“The CMS Rural Health Strategy identifies five specific objectives intended to achieve the agency’s vision for equitable rural health:
“Apply a Rural Lens to CMS Programs and Policies
CMS recognizes the need to look at policymaking, program design, and strategic planning through a specific lens to promote health equity among all populations that it serves. The first objective focuses on areas where the agency can better meet the needs of rural populations and avoid unintended consequences of policy and program implementation for these communities…”
“Advance Telehealth and Telemedicine
The third objective focuses on the advancement of telehealth and telemedicine. Telehealth has been proven to be a successful tool to improve access to care and help meet the needs of rural areas that lack sufficient health care services. To help promote the use of telehealth, CMS will seek to reduce barriers stakeholders identified such as reimbursement, cross-state licensure issues, and the administrative and financial burden to implement telemedicine…” Read the full press release here.
Source: CMS Rural Health Strategy – May 8, 2018. CMS.gov.
