CMS Releases Framework for Advancing Health Care in Rural, Tribal, and Geographically Isolated Communities

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH) is recognizing the unique health care needs of individuals that live in rural, Tribal, frontier, and geographically isolated communities and territories throughout the month of November. This month, CMS will be releasing multiple new resources that show how we’re expanding on our rural health strategy and helping those that live in rural communities to achieve their optimal health, including the CMS Framework for Advancing Health Care in Rural, Tribal, and Geographically Isolated Communities.

CMS recognizes that more than 61 million Americans live in rural areas, and face several unique challenges. And those challenges can differ dramatically among the different kinds of rural areas across the country. Rural residents tend to be older and in poorer health than their urban counterparts, and rural communities often face challenges with access to care, financial viability, and the important link between health care and economic development.

Our recently released report, Advancing Rural Health Equity (PDF), outlines the various ways that CMS has gone the “extra mile” over the past year to meet the needs of rural populations, outlining activities across 10 areas of particular importance to rural health. Among the areas included are Medicare, the rural health workforce, models and demonstrations, maternal health, and COVID-19.

Additionally, we recently released the CMS Framework for Advancing Health Care in Rural, Tribal, and Geographically Isolated Communities (PDF), which builds on the previously released Rural Health Strategy (PDF) and aligns with the CMS Framework for Health Equity 2022 – 2032 (PDF) to improve health equity and reduce disparities.

As CMS OMH recognizes National Rural Health Day, we are continuing to reaffirm our commitment to helping those in rural, Tribal, frontier, and geographically isolated territories to achieve their optimal health. Below are resources that you can use to help those you serve throughout the month of November and beyond.

Join us to learn more! Register here for our November 15 webinar on the CMS Framework for Advancing Health Care in Rural, Tribal, and Geographically Isolated Communities.

Resources

• Visit our Rural Health webpage to find resources designed for the more than 50 million Americans that live in rural, Tribal, frontier, and geographically isolated territories.
• Review Advancing Rural Health Equity (PDF), which shares how CMS has met the needs of rural, Tribal, frontier, and geographically isolated communities throughout 2022.
• Review the CMS Framework for Advancing Health Care in Rural, Tribal, and Geographically Isolated Communities (PDF), which is designed to illustrate how CMS is working across its programs to promote access to high-quality, equitable care in rural, tribal, and geographically isolated communities.
• Download Rural-Urban Disparities in Health Care in Medicare (PDF), which describes rural-urban differences in health care experiences and clinical care received nationally.
• Review our Advancing Rural Maternal Health Equity Report (PDF), which provides a high-level summary of the activities that CMS OMH implemented to address maternal health disparities between June 2019 and November 2021 as a part of its Rural Maternal Health Initiative.
• View the CMS Rural Health Strategy (PDF) to learn how the Agency is applying a rural lens to new and ongoing activities, and how this approach informs the pathway by which CMS can advance the state of rural health care in America.

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Paid for by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

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