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.
USDA Program Recognizes Indigenous Food Ways
The Indigenous Food Sovereignty Initiative promotes recipes and videos designed, researched, and tested to adhere to Indigenous beliefs and dietary needs.
More RUral Health Stories
#PowerofRural: Addressing Disparities to Health Through Cultural Understanding
Messengers for Health – one of the organizations honored as a Community Star during National Rural Health Day – helps Native Americans in Montana understand the importance of cancer screenings by incorporating Crow culture into health messaging
#PowerofRural: LGBTQ Representation Is More Than a Buzzword in Rural Health, Community Star Says
Honored as a Community Star during National Rural Health Day, Tori Gleason works by the maxim ‘Nothing about us without us’ when advocating for the rural LGBTQ community’s access to good healthcare.
Mental Health Treatment Is Becoming Less of a Taboo Subject with Rural Residents, New Study Shows
Younger generations are more willing to talk about mental-health issues than their older counterparts.
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Weekly Red-Zone Reports
Keep your finger on the pulse of rural health news.
Even More to Explore In Rural Health
Covid-19 Infection Rates in Rural America Lower than Urban Rates for Second Consecutive Week
Rural infection rates dropped 10% last week, according to a Daily Yonder Analysis.
Rural Covid-19 Deaths Dropped Last Week While Infection Rates Climbed
Rural America reported 60 fewer deaths last week compared to two weeks ago.
Instead of Making Patients Come to Him, Traveling Oral Surgeon Meets Small-Town People Where They Live
Dr. Cameron Lewis, DDS, travels to smaller communities in New York and Connecticut to serve patients who either would have to do without surgery or travel long distances to more urban areas.
Rural Covid-19 Infection Rates Stagnate While Death Rates Climb
Rural Counties saw virtually no change in infection rates last week, but rural death rates increased while metropolitan rates dropped.
New Map Reveals Consequences of Flooding Near Tar Creek Superfund Site In Oklahoma
The new tool might help the community avoid health hazards and develop mitigation strategies to save their town.
How Ready Is Your County to Help with Addiction Recovery?
A new index is designed to assess the “recovery environment” in each U.S. county. The tool provides information on the availability of different treatment options, support systems for people in recovery, and social factors such as housing costs, transportation, and more.
Minnesota Has Become an Island of Abortion Access
Some Minnesota clinics report a surge of patients since the end of Roe v. Wade.
Commentary: Rural Americans Need Reliable Access to Pharmacist Services Well Beyond Covid-19
Pharmacies helped fill the gap in care for rural areas during the pandemic. We need to ensure that they continue to do so after the public health emergency declaration expires.
Commentary: Vaccinations Get Students Safely Back Where They Belong — In the Classroom
Strong uptake of Covid-19 vaccinations is another way rural communities exude a sense of safety and caring, according to these rural teachers.
When Monkeypox Reaches Rural Communities, It Collides With Strained Public Health Systems
In Nevada, local health officials are assessing the threat of monkeypox, but their response may be hampered by historically limited public health infrastructure worn thin by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lack of Medical Specialists Increases Obstacles to Care and Worsens Patients’ Prognoses
In Shasta County, California, with vast swaths of sparsely populated land, patients who need local, specialized health care may be out of luck. That strains primary-care clinics, increases use of ERs, lengthens travel times for those who must find care in urban areas, and creates worse patient outcomes. A local response to the problem shows promise.
Why This Hawaiian Island Has to Outsource Psychiatric Care
For the first time since 1990, the state agency that provides care to adults diagnosed with a serious mental illness has no staff on Lanai, an island of about 3,000 residents where one person owns 98% of the land. Health-care access issues there are a microcosm of a growing mental health-care crisis in rural America.
Proliferating Wildfires Poison Public Health Across the Country
“We are living through a natural experiment right now — we’ve never had fires this frequently.” – Healthcare community rings the alarm about dramatic negative health effects of fire smoke recorded all around the country.
No Internet, No Telehealth: Rural N.C. Residents Struggle to Connect with Doctors Virtually
Rural counties, which have fewer healthcare resources, also have worse internet connectivity. What does that mean for telehealth, a frequently cited solution for rural healthcare shortages?
Breaking Point: Specialists, Broadband and the Fight for Health Equity in Rural America
Chronic health conditions and distance to medical services mean rural residents need more healthcare specialists and better telehealth. But they are less likely than urban areas to get it. In Hawaii, California, and North Carolina, communities look at ways to change that equation.
Privacy, Stigma May Keep Workers From Using Abortion Travel Benefits
Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer and a major part of the rural labor market, is one of the companies that is promising to help pay for expenses for employees who have to travel to reach abortion services. States may push back against such benefits.
Buy and Bust: After Platinum Health Took Control of Noble Sites, All Hospital Workers Were Fired
Two small Missouri hospitals currently closed and owned by a private equity firm hope for another change of ownership for a chance to reopen. Meanwhile hundreds of employees and thousands of patients are in a limbo of uncertainty.
Radiation Victims Seek Expansion of 32-Year-Old Compensation Act
The 1990 law offered some assistance to people exposed to radiation from atomic-weapon tests or mining. But many who were exposed downwind or downstream aren’t part of the program. And Congress can’t agree on a solution.
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