Health Care in the Heartland: New Heartland Forward Report Creates Comprehensive Policy Roadmap & Atlas to Modernize the Health Care System in Rural America

Report contains quantitative and qualitative research from six heartland states as well as policy solutions and recommendations for policymakers, health care professionals and community leaders to improve health care access, delivery and workforce opportunities in the rural heartland

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Dec. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Good physical and mental health is an important economic development and quality-of-life issue for rural America. It is key to having a happier and more productive community and workforce, which, in turn, leads to a higher gross regional product (GRP), reducing the strain on state budgets related to overall health care spending. Health Care Access in the Heartland: How to improve services in rural America, a new report from Heartland Forward released today, offers a qualitative and quantitative look at the causes, effects and possible policy solutions to improve health services and workforce opportunities for rural communities.

Methodology. To study the subject, Heartland Forward researchers looked closely at six states – Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee – and analyzed demographics, health indicators, health risk factors and health care access metrics to understand how counties might benefit from new and updated health care services resulting from less-restrictive policies enacted during the pandemic. They also conducted 12 in-person focus groups across the six-state study area—two in each state–and additional interviews with national, regional and local experts on the topic.

Using our data: Two interactive tools. In addition to a policy roadmap for policymakers on the federal and state & local levels, Heartland Forward also created two multi-functional data-driven tools that combine to create a comprehensive one-stop-shop for stakeholders interested in affecting the health industry:

• The Rural Health Care Accessibility Atlas. The Atlas aggregates millions of publicly available data points to allow citizens and decision makers to easily access common data sources for developing health care access at the county level.
• The Rural Health Workforce Data Tool. This tool shows health care labor market data for 31 health care occupations in the six states studied, such as: dentists, community health workers, pharmacists, dietitians, audiologists, nurse assistants, home health aides, etc.

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SOURCE Heartland Forward