Research Publications

Browse the full list of research publications from the Rural Health Research Centers.

Products – Freely accessible products include policy briefs, fact sheets, full reports, chartbooks, and interactive data websites.

Journal Articles – Articles in peer-reviewed journals may require a subscription or affiliation with a subscribing library. For these publications, Gateway lists the article citation, a brief summary, a link to additional information and access to the full-text of the article, if available.

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Five Most Recent Publications

• Rural Hospital Financial Distress Index: Relative Risk in 2025
  North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center, Rapid Response to Requests for Rural Data Analysis
  Date: 11/2025
  This infographic shows a U.S. map of the number and percent of rural hospitals within each state at highest relative financial distress risk in 2025.
• RHCs and CAHs Participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP): Characteristics of the Providers and Communities
  Policy Brief
  RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
  Date: 11/2025
  This brief describes characteristics of Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) currently participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) and the communities they serve, which will help identify locations and provider characteristics for further growth of the model.
• Rural-Urban Differences in Barriers to Care and Utilization of Preventive Care Among Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage Beneficiaries
  Policy Brief
  RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis
  Date: 11/2025
  This policy brief examined rural and urban differences in barriers to care and use of preventive care services among enrollees in traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage.
• Third Party Negotiated Hospital Pricing in Rural and Urban Hospitals Within 12 U.S. States
  Policy Brief
  Rural and Underserved Health Research Center
  Date: 11/2025
  This report examined hospital pricing for common services and procedures in rural and urban hospitals. Researchers hypothesized that rural hospitals would differ from urban hospitals in their insurance-negotiated charges, given that rural hospitals tend to be smaller and offer fewer services.
• An Enhanced Method for Identifying Hospital-Based Obstetric Unit Status, Version 2 with Addendum
  Rural Maternal Health Data Support and Analysis Program, University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Date: 10/2025
  The purpose of this methodology brief is to describe an enhanced method for identifying hospital-based obstetric unit status and for identifying closures of obstetric units. Version two of the methodology was used to identify obstetric care access in the 2010-2023 data resource.