The health care delivery system will undergo significant changes as the provisions of the PPACA are implemented during the next five years. Understanding the implications for service in rural areas will be critical when writing or commenting on new rules and regulations. For example, changes in physician payment policies may not have the intended effect in all regions of the country. Efforts to refine the original legislation, through rules or through legislative change, should be informed by empirical analyses. When the change cannot be assessed by empirical simulation, modeling can be used to project potential rural scenarios. For example, policies designed to change the organization of services by integrating services could be implemented in different ways as a function of what currently exists in rural places.

Publications

• Medicare Beneficiary Access to Primary Care Physicians -- Better in Rural, but Still Worrisome
  Policy Brief
  RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
  Date: 01/2011
  In this policy brief, results from a large national physician survey are used to assess U.S. primary care physician and general surgeon willingness to accept Medicare patients and physician-reported reasons for not accepting Medicare patients.