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.
How Will Rural Americans Fare During Medicaid Unwinding? Experts Fear They’re on Their Own
Community health professionals work hard to reach rural residents disproportionately hurt by Medicare and Medicaid unwinding.
More RUral Health Stories
Recovery-Friendly Workplaces Can Help Those on the Path to Healing
While providing an opportunity to do meaningful work for those in recovery, these businesses could also play a role in helping their host communities advance economically.
Life in a Rural ‘Ambulance Desert’ Means Sometimes Help Isn’t on the Way
Rural Pickens County, Alabama, has just one ambulance station to serve the area’s 20,000 residents.
Thousands of Coal Miners Still Sick and Dying as Feds Consider Silica Dust Fix
A proposed rule to toughen restrictions on silica dust is being considered by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, but health experts question how effective the measures would be to mitigate risk to coal miners.
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Weekly Red-Zone Reports
Coronavirus in Rural America
Keep your finger on the pulse of rural health news.
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Even More to Explore In Rural Health
Mississippi’s Cervical Cancer Deaths Indicate Broader Health Care Problems
Mississippi has among the highest cervical cancer mortality rates in the U.S. When low-income women can’t afford regular preventive care, much less gynecological visits, this highly preventable and treatable cancer becomes a killer.
Efforts in Rural New York Communities Aim to Prevent Children From Entering Foster Care
A Clinton County program serves a handful of families at a time but reflects far larger efforts nationwide to avoid family separation whenever possible.
Disappearing Dentists: For Low-Income Nebraskans, Long Drives, Long Lines, Little Help
Dentists are sparse in rural Nebraska and low income families struggle to find adequate care.
Experts: Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act Removes a Roadblock to Recovery
With passage of the MAT Act, rural patients could see access to buprenorphine, a crucial opioid addiction treatment drug, become easier and more reliable.
Report: Current Funding For Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children Falls Short
Failure to secure sufficient funding would undo some of the progress made in making the program more accessible by removing the in-person appointments requirement, a change particularly helpful for those living in communities farther away from urban centers.
Rural Tennessee County Regains Access to Emergency Care After Four Years Without
The hospital in Jamestown closed in 2019, leaving residents a half-hour’s drive from life-saving care. A new freestanding ER established by the University of Tennessee Medical Center will bring back emergency medicine.
‘Oppenheimer’ Discourse Leaves Out Downwind Communities
The blockbuster film, and the buzz it’s attracted, overlook the tens of thousands of rural people living within 50 miles of the first nuclear blast.
Commentary: Reckoning With the Loss of Rural Labor and Delivery Departments
Even if rural hospitals stay open because of a Critical Access designation, their labor and delivery units are disappearing.
Rural California County with High Overdose Rate Plugs Budget Gap with Opioid Settlement Cash
In the 1990s, tobacco settlement money was supposed to fund programs to prevent smoking. But billions of dollars went to plug budget gaps instead. Is history repeating itself with the opioid settlements?
Dark Forest: A Look Inside Controversial Wilderness Therapy Camps
Using nature to clear the mind is a tried-and-true technique. But rural-based “wilderness therapy” camps often employ controversial practices to treat troubled teens that may do more harm than good, according to former campers and child welfare advocates.
Experience with Domestic Violence Prompts Nurse to Train to Care for Rural Trauma Victims
Nurse Leslie Copp is seeking advanced nursing degrees with the help of the Pat Tillman Foundation. Her goal is to fill a gap in trauma care in rural Indiana.
Commentary: Debates over ‘Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn’ Sow Conflict and Division, not Protection
Efforts like those in Grayson County, Virginia, to localize the abortion issue are part of a national movement that brings a deeply personal issue into contentious public debates. There’s little to show for it except hard feelings and fractured relationships. So who is really “winning”?
Rural Residents Five Times More Likely to Live Far from Ambulance Stations
A first-of-its-kind study found that about half of all residents who live more than 25 minutes from an ambulance station are in rural areas.
Recovery Cafes Offer Support, Healing in Rural Communities
Facing issues including substance misuse or loneliness, a new way to gather to lean on others for support is catching on in rural American towns. A rural fellowship program focused on health and criminal justice is helping support some of the efforts.
New Rule Aims to Limit Miners’ Silica Dust Exposure But Still Relies on Coal Company Self-Oversight
Advocates hail effort to curb black lung surge but say more needs to be done.
Census: Rural Americans Have Higher Rates of Disabilities Than Urban Dwellers
Access to health care and more willingness to disclose it are among some of the main factors contributing to the higher disability rates, experts say.
Once-Resistant Rural Court Officials Begin to Embrace Medications to Treat Addiction
A shift is occurring in rural courtrooms as more judges consider medication treatment as an alternative to incarceration for people facing drug-related convictions.
For Decades, the Top Rural Health Issue Has Been Access to Basic Care; Now It’s Mental Health and Addiction
In surveys conducted in previous years, rural stakeholders said access to family doctors and other basic care was the highest priority. Looking into the future, a new survey says the highest priorities will be mental health and addiction.
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