Rural Ga. Businesses Increasingly Prop Up Struggling Health Care System

Maryland's health care system is based on three pillars – all-payer rate setting, a global budget, and total cost of care – that, together, have shown positive results both for the patients and for the state's hospitals. Although evidence of success with regard to health care costs is limited, the model of incentiving investment in community health and preventive care has shown success in reducing readmission rates for hospitals across the state.

Rural hospitals often face a host of problems, especially when it comes to financial troubles; however, a small hospital in Wisconsin has been able to remain open by embracing a merger with a larger health care facility. This has lead to a handful of positive outcomes such as "significantly improved operating margins, higher quality and outcomes and better patient satisfaction"

A state-funded loan repayment program makes Michigan stand out in a competitive market for doctors and health care professionals. To help reduce the shortfall of healthcare professionals in underserved, rural communities, the Michigan Loan Reimbursement and Employment Solution (MiLES) currently offers student loan repayment in exchange for a multi-year commitment from doctors. The success of the program has generated efforts to expand loan repayment caps and the length of employment commitments for healthcare professionals.

Instead of letting a rural Kansas hospital perish, one CEO found a way to recruit young physicians, and get grants for the hospital. His methods helped the hospital avoid the common fate many rural hospitals face, which are often forced to shut down. It “now serves about 20,000 patients annually, up from roughly 10,000 patients in 2012, and generated $23.4 million in revenue last year.”

Hidalgo Medical Services is a nonprofit public health clinic that has set out to develop a model for delivering quality, affordable health care to rural communities through a comprehensive approach that addresses multiple patient needs at once.

Rural hospitals across the country often struggle to stay open in states where Medicaid has not been expanded, but a method known as "swing beds" has helped two critical-access hospitals in Georgia to avoid this fate. This method, which allows hospitals to swing beds from "only patients in need of acute care to those who no longer require the emergency department but still needed more treatment before a nursing home," allowed for the hospitals to pay off debt and expand services.

To better serve Mexican citizens living in the U.S., the Mexican government created an initiative known as Health Windowns that helps bridge the gap between immigrants and preventive health care access. Although anyone is welcome to visit the free resource centers or any of the community pop-ups for medical attention, the program targets those who lack health insurance or are hesitant to receive traditional medical care.

The St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic is a mobile health clinic bringing care to uninsured, rural residents in Tennessee. The initiative has reached nearly 250 people since it started, providing care to six different towns once per month. With the costs of health care without insurance being enough to turn people away from seeking it, this clinic provides medical evaluations, medicine, and lab work – all with the hope of rebuilding trust between communities and the healthcare system.

Enrolling local agents allows global partners to connect underserved and remote communities to healthcare. A partnership between Rwanda’s Health Ministry and the Boston-based nonprofit, Partners in Health, trains community-based health workers to communicate and connect people on the ground to health services across the country. Rwanda has also implemented reforms and services such as government-subsided healthcare, which has helped improve the life expectancy of its citizens.

India launched a new nationwide healthcare program dubbed “Modicare.” The massive plan is supposed to provide healthcare to 500 million people. Most importantly, it will provide “poor families insurance of up to $6,950 in hospitals, a significant sum in India.”