1932

Abstract

The rural health care system has changed dramatically over the past decade because of a general transformation of health care financing, the introduction of new technologies, and the clustering of health services into systems and networks. Despite these changes, resources for rural health systems remain relatively insufficient. Many rural communities continue to experience shortages of physicians, and the proportion of rural hospitals under financial stress is much greater than that of urban hospitals. The health care conditions of selected rural areas compare unfavorably with the rest of the nation. The market and governmental policies have attempted to address some of these disparities by encouraging network development and telemedicine and by changing the rules for Medicare payments to providers. The public health infrastructure in rural America is not well understood but is potentially the most fragile aspect of the rural health care continuum.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.21.1.639
2000-05-01
2024-10-11
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.21.1.639
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.21.1.639
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error