Starting a Rural Health Clinic: A How To Manual

摘要

In 1977, Congress passed the Rural Health Clinic Services Act (PL 95-210). The legislation had two main goals: improve access to primary health care in rural, underserved communities; and promote a collaborative model of health care delivery using physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants. In subsequent legislation, Congress added nurse midwives to the core set of primary care professionals and included mental health services provided by psychologists and clinical social workers as part of the Rural Health Clinic (RHC) benefit. The law authorizes special Medicare and Medicaid payment mechanisms for rural health clinics and uses these special payment mechanisms as the principal incentive for becoming a Federally-certified Improving access to primary care services in Rural Health Clinic. For Medicare, underserved rural communities and utilizing a team the payment mechanism is a modified approach to health care delivery are still the main cost-based method of payment. For focuses of the RHC program. Medicaid, States are mandated to reimburse Rural Health Clinics using a Prospective Payment System (PPS).