Accompanying CD-Rom has same title as book.

Many of the 61 million people who live in rural America have limited access to health care. Almost a quarter of the nation's population lives in rural places yet only an eighth of our doctors work there. Sponsored by the U.S. Office of Rural Health Policy, this unique book provides the facts about this imbalance and interprets them in the context of government programs that promote the placement of doctors and the operation of hospitals in rural places while paying them less to treat Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. The authors' comprehensive analysis of rural health care delivery shows where there are differences in rates of death and disease between rural areas using maps, graphs, and plain-English descriptions. The book provides a thorough look at health care in rural America, giving a snapshot of how doctors, hospitals, and technology are unevenly distributed outside the nation's metropolitan areas.

Rural counties make up about 80 percent of the land area of the United States, but they contain less than 20 percent of the U.S. population. The relative sparseness of the population in rural areas is one of many factors that influence the health and well-being of rural Americans. Rural areas have histories, economies, and cultures that differ from those of cities and from one rural area to another. Understanding these differences is critical to taking steps to improve health and well-being in rural areas and to reduce health disparities among rural populations. To explore the impacts of economic, demographic, and social issues in rural communities and to learn about asset-based approaches to addressing the associated challenges, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop on June 13, 2017. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Americans are accustomed to anecdotal evidence of the health care crisis. Yet, personal or local stories do not provide a comprehensive nationwide picture of our access to health care. Now, this book offers the long-awaited health equivalent of national economic indicators. This useful volume defines a set of national objectives and identifies indicatorsâ€"measures of utilization and outcomeâ€"that can "sense" when and where problems occur in accessing specific health care services. Using the indicators, the committee presents significant conclusions about the situation today, examining the relationships between access to care and factors such as income, race, ethnic origin, and location. The committee offers recommendations to federal, state, and local agencies for improving data collection and monitoring. This highly readable and well-organized volume will be essential for policymakers, public health officials, insurance companies, hospitals, physicians and nurses, and interested individuals.

Health needs and health services in rural America are key issues directly related to education as well as community well-being. This report examines rural America's access to basic health care services and discusses options for congressional consideration. The focus is on trends in availability of primary and acute rural health care and on factors affecting those trends. The report describes the characteristics of rural populations and health programs, the availability of rural health services and personnel, and delivery of rural maternal and infant health and mental health care services. On each subject, options for congressional action are examined. The federal government currently finances several different types of rural health care programs, and has a strong interest in health care trends. Major declines in inpatient utilization, compounded by increasing amounts of uncompensated care, have undermined the financial health of many rural hospitals, which also are faced with the outmigration of rural residents to urban areas for care. Policy reform options are presented in regard to: (1) improvement of rural health facilities; (2) availability and training of health professionals in rural areas; and (3) enhancing maternal and infant care programs and mental health care programs in rural areas. This document contains numerous charts, graphics, data tables, and appendices that present background information about the study. It also includes a 745-item bibliography and a subject index.