Rural Health

Rural Health Policy Development

Authorizing Legislation - Section 301 of the Public Health Service Act, Section 711 of the Social Security Act.

FY 2008 Authorization.......................................................................................................Indefinite

Statement of the Budget Request - The FY 2008 Budget is equal to the FY 2007 Continuing Resolution (CR).

Program Description - The primary mission of the ORHP is to sustain and improve access to quality health care services for rural communities. To accomplish this mission, ORHP advises the Secretary and other components of the Department on rural health issues and supports a variety of activities, including rural health research and information dissemination and advisory efforts.

ORHP Rural Health Research Centers develop much of the objective information upon which recommendations for improving the delivery of health care services in rural communities is based. In the past, efforts to understand and appropriately address the health needs of rural Americans were severely limited by the lack of information about the rural population and the impact of Federal policies and regulations on the rural health care infrastructure. The ORHP Rural Health Research Center Grant program is the only Federal research program specifically designed to provide both short and long-term policy relevant studies on rural health issues. Grants are awarded to eight Research Centers annually. The work of the Centers is published in policy briefs, academic journals, research papers, and other venues and is made available to policy makers at both the Federal and State levels.

In addition to the Research Centers, this activity continues support for: (1) the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services, which advises the Secretary on rural health and human service programs and policies; (2) dissemination of rural health and human services information by the Rural Assistance Center (the Center responds individually to hundreds of inquiries each month and disseminates information through its web site); (3) other projects that assist HRSA and ORHP in identifying and clarifying rural health care issues; and (4) activities related to the HHS Rural Initiative.

Rationale for the Budget Request - The FY 2008 Budget of $8,737,000 will continue support for the Rural Health Policy Development program. This will allow continued operation of key functions for the Office.

Funding levels for Rural Health Policy Development during the last five years reflect this effort and are as follows:

Outputs          

Performance Analysis - The policy activities of the Office of Rural Health Policy continue to meet or exceed performance goals. The performance measure for this activity is the number of rural health research studies completed through the Rural Health Research Center grant program. This program is the only research activity within the Department that exclusively focuses on rural health services research and analysis.

In FY 2002, the program met its target of producing 24 rural research reports. In FY 2003, the program exceeded its target, producing 21 rural research reports. The program again exceeded its target in FY 2004 by producing 26 reports and again in FY 2005 by producing 30 reports. In
FY 2006, the program met its target of 30 reports. (See “Details of Performance Analysis.”) These research reports inform the Office’s policy role of advising the Department on rural health issues. Research findings help to ensure that rural concerns are identified and shared within the Department and that policymaking takes into account the unique challenges faced by rural providers and the communities they serve.

This program was covered in OMB’s combined PART assessment of HRSA’s Rural Health Activities during the FY 2005 budget cycle. The program received a rating of Adequate.