Rural Health Policy

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

Program Description and Accomplishments
Rural Health Policy Development activities are a component of ORHP and support a range of policy analysis, research and information dissemination. The Office is charged in its authorizing statute to advise the Secretary on how Departmental policies affect rural communities and to conduct research to inform its policy analysis activities. The Office is also charged with supporting information dissemination and the operation of a clearinghouse on national rural health initiatives.

The ORHP Rural Health Research Center Grant program is a major component of the Rural Health Policy Development activities. It 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 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. In addition to the research center grants, the Rural Health Policy Development Activities also support the administration of two additional cooperative agreements that focus on data and trend analysis on new and ongoing policy issues.

Another major component of the Rural Health Policy Development activities is the Office’s work in staffing the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services, which advises the Secretary on rural health and human service programs and policies and produces an annual report on key rural issues for the Secretary. The Rural Health Policy activities also play a key role in serving as a key broker of information on rural health issues through a cooperative agreement with the Rural Assistance Center (RAC). The RAC responds individually to hundreds of inquiries each month by both phone and e-mail and disseminates information through its web site and various reports and information guides on a range of key rural health issues. In FY 2007, the program produced 30 research reports, meeting the target for the second year in a row. This program was covered in OMB’s combined PART assessment of HRSA’s Rural Health Activities during 2003. The rural health activities received a rating of Adequate. (See earlier Office of Rural Health Policy Summary Request.)

Funding includes costs associated with grant reviews, processing of grants through the Grants Administration Tracking and Evaluation System (GATES) and HRSA’s electronic handbook, and follow-up performance reviews.

Funding History

Budget Request
There FY 2009 request is $8,737,000, an increase of $153,000 from the FY 2008 Enacted Level. The request will allow the Department to continue to support key activities including monitoring and researching issues such as access to care and financial viability of key rural health safety net providers as well as continuing to serve as a dissemination point on key rural health issues. The target for the FY 2009 performance measure is 30 research reports.

See table