Keeping rural America strong means building healthy communities. Our healthcare coverage focuses on all the important issues in rural health, including access to critical care, affordability, the future of rural hospitals, the rural response to the Covid-19 pandemic, drug addiction and abuse, and much more.
Rural Jails Turn to Community Health Workers To Help the Newly Released Succeed
Substance abuse and mental illness, both common among incarcerated people, make reentry difficult. These professionals want to ease the burden.
More RUral Health Stories
Doctors Take On Dental Duties to Reach Low-Income and Uninsured Patients
More programs across the nation are integrating oral health with general healthcare in areas where dental services can be hard to find.
45 Degrees North: One More Worry For Rural Elders And Caregivers
Whether aging in place is a choice or a necessity, rural elders can be particularly vulnerable to the impacts of severe weather and other disasters, natural or manmade. When every minute counts, it pays to be prepared.
Program Brings Together Three Generations to Discuss Aging
A new program in Oklahoma will combine the wisdom of senior citizens and the youth of high schoolers to fight negative stereotypes about aging in rural communities.
Featured Coverage
Weekly Red-Zone Reports
Coronavirus in Rural America
Keep your finger on the pulse of rural health news.
Even More to Explore In Rural Health
City-Country Mortality Gap Widens Amid Persistent Holes in Rural Health Care Access
USDA research found rural Americans between 25 and 54 years old die from chronic diseases and cancer at much higher rates than the same age group living in urban areas.
Experts Say Avian Flu Spreads to Humans, Other Mammals
Over the past two years, a disease usually found in birds has quietly been making its way to other animals, including humans.
Filling a Gap in Mental Health Care for Minnesota’s Migrant Workers
‘Bienvenido’ program aims to provide support for rural Latino workers who are isolated and far from home.
Advocates: Too Early to Judge Effectiveness of Federal Investments in Rural Maternity Care
Although the wave of new state and federal funding is finally reaching struggling rural hospitals, experts say more work is still needed, while the full effects may not be clear for years.
Some Medicaid Providers Borrow or Go Into Debt Amid ‘Unwinding’ Payment Disruptions
Used to operating with scarce resources, Montana Medicaid providers say gaps in state payments have left them struggling further.
Reentry Program for Those Incarcerated Offers ‘A Model for Us to Follow’
First Day Forward helps inmates with substance use disorder return to their communities with a plan and a support system in place to maximize chances for successful, ongoing recovery.
45 Degrees North: What’s the Status of Your EMS?
As rural communities struggle to keep Emergency Medical Services operating, how do we assess the condition of those services? Are we asking the right questions?
Q&A: Is Meth Really a Rural Problem?
An interview with Anthropologist William Garriott on hillbilly stereotypes and the truth about urban and suburban methamphetamine use.
Hundreds of Thousands of US Infants Every Year Pay the Consequences of Prenatal Exposure to Drugs, a Growing Crisis Particularly in Rural America
Rates of prenatal substance exposure are nearly 50% higher in West Virginia than the national average, resulting in a range of adverse pregnancy outcomes and developmental consequences.
Medical Students Help Rural Schoolchildren Avoid Suspension With Mobile Physicals
Students from ECU provide state-mandated health assessments to kids in southeastern North Carolina counties.
‘Home Cooked’ – You Haven’t Heard Much About Meth Lately. That’s Not Because It’s No Longer a Problem.
The Daily Yonder’s five-part podcast on methamphetamine in America is a much-needed revision of our out-of-date ideas about who makes, uses, and dies from meth. Reporter Olivia Weeks is your guide.
The Commercial Alternative to Traditional Medicare Is Putting Financial Strain on Rural Hospitals
Other threats include the possible expiration of new programs that address Medicare reimbursement and low-patient volume. A new report says half of all rural hospitals are operating in the red.
‘Fourth Wave’ of Opioid Overdoses Reaches a County Once Called the Epicenter of the Epidemic
Years of struggle prepared residents in Cabell County, West Virginia, to confront the latest wave of the opioid epidemic as mixtures of fentanyl and other drugs claim lives nationwide.
Advocates of WIC-Funded Breastfeeding Programs Concerned About Funding Levels
A shortfall in federal funding could affect programs that research has shown to be beneficial in rural areas.
Commentary: It’s Time Governments Consider Paying Doctors to Practice in Rural Areas
An Australian government program that subsidizes specialists practicing in rural communities could combat the growing rural U.S. healthcare crisis.
Project Tests Drones for Rural Health Care
The technology could help with the delivery of critical drugs and other resources to remote communities for less than traditional transportation. Medical professionals involved see great potential.
Iowa Researcher Proposes Subsidies to Bring Cardiac Care to Rural Areas
Instead of relocating cardiology specialists to rural areas, research suggests that a well calculated subsidy for travel could sustain right levels of care despite dropping numbers of cardiologists around the country.
In Small-Town Nebraska, With Suicide Rates High, One Family Delivers Hope for Thousands
Rural mental health struggles are real, as is the lack of mental health providers in small-town Nebraska. But the Koch family, and many others, are working to help.
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