Health News
- Rural Cancer Survivors Are Less Healthy Than Urban Counterparts; 25 Percent Of Rural Cancer Survivors Smoke
A quarter of rural cancer survivors smoke.Cancer survivors from rural areas live less healthier lives than survivors from urban areas. That's the diagnosis of a study by the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., which asked a...
- Health Reform Expected To Hurt Recruitment Of Rural Doctors
Recruiting doctors to rural hospitals will get harder in the next few years as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act reaches full implementation and the demand for healthcare services increases, a new report suggests. An Association...
- Tobacco Use Higher In Rural Areas; Several Factors Include Tobacco Companies' Targeting Of Rural Youth, Lung Assn. Says
Tobacco use is higher among rural communities than in suburban and urban areas, and smokeless tobacco use is twice as common. According to the American Lung Association, rural youth are more likely to use tobacco and to start earlier than urban youth,...
- Care In Rural Hospitals Is Just As Good As That In Urban Hospitals, Study Concludes
While rural Americans have less access to primary care and have worse health outcomes, the care at rural hospitals is equal to, if not better, than that at urban hospitals, a National Rural Health Association report says. The study also found rural health...
- Rural Folks Have More Chronic Conditions And Less Access To Health Care, And Kentucky Is One Of The More Rural States
Though rural Americans have more chronic health conditions than those who live in urban centers, they have poorer access to health care, a working paper released last month confirms. Health experts are pointing to technology, including telemedicine, to...
Health News
Rural health care is a notch below care in urban areas, but its costs are lower and its emergency rooms are faster, study finds
A national study has found a narrow gap between the quality of health care in rural and urban settings, but it does recognize the "significant differences" differences between urban and rural care.
The report is an update to "Rural Relevance Under Healthcare Reform: A Tracking Study," by iVantage Health Analytics, and evaluates performance measures across physician, outpatient, hospital and emergency room settings. According to a press release, the report reveals that in Medicare could save about $7.2 billion if costs per patient were the same in rural and urban settings. The report also finds that for rural patients, physician payments are 18 percent lower and hospital payments are 2 percent lower than in urban areas, but outpatient payments are 14 percent higher. The overall cost per Medicare patient is 3.7 percent lower for rural patients.
Rural emergency care is faster overall than urban emergency room care, with rural patients seeing a doctor 30 percent faster (once the patient gets to the hospital, we should add). This results in fewer hospital admissions. The full report can be accessed here.
The report is an update to "Rural Relevance Under Healthcare Reform: A Tracking Study," by iVantage Health Analytics, and evaluates performance measures across physician, outpatient, hospital and emergency room settings. According to a press release, the report reveals that in Medicare could save about $7.2 billion if costs per patient were the same in rural and urban settings. The report also finds that for rural patients, physician payments are 18 percent lower and hospital payments are 2 percent lower than in urban areas, but outpatient payments are 14 percent higher. The overall cost per Medicare patient is 3.7 percent lower for rural patients.
Rural emergency care is faster overall than urban emergency room care, with rural patients seeing a doctor 30 percent faster (once the patient gets to the hospital, we should add). This results in fewer hospital admissions. The full report can be accessed here.
- Rural Cancer Survivors Are Less Healthy Than Urban Counterparts; 25 Percent Of Rural Cancer Survivors Smoke
A quarter of rural cancer survivors smoke.Cancer survivors from rural areas live less healthier lives than survivors from urban areas. That's the diagnosis of a study by the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., which asked a...
- Health Reform Expected To Hurt Recruitment Of Rural Doctors
Recruiting doctors to rural hospitals will get harder in the next few years as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act reaches full implementation and the demand for healthcare services increases, a new report suggests. An Association...
- Tobacco Use Higher In Rural Areas; Several Factors Include Tobacco Companies' Targeting Of Rural Youth, Lung Assn. Says
Tobacco use is higher among rural communities than in suburban and urban areas, and smokeless tobacco use is twice as common. According to the American Lung Association, rural youth are more likely to use tobacco and to start earlier than urban youth,...
- Care In Rural Hospitals Is Just As Good As That In Urban Hospitals, Study Concludes
While rural Americans have less access to primary care and have worse health outcomes, the care at rural hospitals is equal to, if not better, than that at urban hospitals, a National Rural Health Association report says. The study also found rural health...
- Rural Folks Have More Chronic Conditions And Less Access To Health Care, And Kentucky Is One Of The More Rural States
Though rural Americans have more chronic health conditions than those who live in urban centers, they have poorer access to health care, a working paper released last month confirms. Health experts are pointing to technology, including telemedicine, to...