Pilot Testing a Rural Health Clinic Quality Measurement Reporting System

More than 4,000 Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) serve the primary care needs of rural communities. As such, RHCs are an important source of primary care and other essential health services for rural residents. Unfortunately, the Rural Health Clinic Program is plagued by a lack of data on the financial,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy File 2016
Main Authors: Gale, John, Hansen, Anush, Hartley, David, Coburn, Andrew
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Government
Health care policy
Maine Rural Health Research Center
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:More than 4,000 Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) serve the primary care needs of rural communities. As such, RHCs are an important source of primary care and other essential health services for rural residents. Unfortunately, the Rural Health Clinic Program is plagued by a lack of data on the financial, operational, and quality performance of participating clinics. In light of the significant expansion of quality performance reporting and growing use of performance-based payment approaches, however, it is critically important that RHCs not be "left behind," unable to compete in this changing health care market. To this end, we piloted the reporting and use of a small set of primary care-relevant quality measures by a geographically diverse sample of RHCs. This Policy Brief reports on the results of this pilot with a focus on assessing the feasibility and utility of the reporting system and quality measures for the participating RHCs.