Amid shaky finances in rural health care, Heartland Forward report suggests ways to improve access and services

By Worth Sparkman
Axios NW Arkansas

Affordability, telehealth and a trained, motivated workforce are the keys to keeping the engine of rural health care running smoothly. A Heartland Forward report outlines strategies policymakers and community leaders in rural America can use to improve health care access and services.

Many rural hospitals in the U.S. face a funding crisis. Many small, independent hospitals face possible closure or consolidation through acquisition as they struggle with finances. One in 10 hospitals in Texas and more than half of Mississippi's rural hospitals are at risk of shuttering.

The report analyzes data from Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee, where Heartland Forward convened focus groups and expert interviews, but researchers see potential applications for its concepts nationwide. Authors found three areas with the most possible impact:

• Increasing price transparency and working to reduce complexity in understanding the health care system can lead to residents using it more often for preventive care rather than acute care.
• Expanding access to telehealth by lowering policy barriers for providers and normalizing the tools for patients.
• Boosting the health care workforce through training, streamlining licensing regulations and providing advancement opportunities for practitioners.

True to its nature as a "think and do tank," Heartland developed three tools for communities in the six-state region to use to guide care-related planning and decision making:

• A policy recommendations document that provides a detailed map of barriers and opportunities to address affordability, telehealth and workforce issues.
• An interactive accessibility dashboard that provides detailed county, congressional district and state-level data on various health and wellness topics.
• An interactive labor market tool with detailed geographic data on 31 health care professions.

The bottom line: Researchers write that as access to health care declines in rural areas, the workforce becomes less productive and slows economic performance, so a focus on health and wellness will also rev up an area's economic vitality.