NRDP-HHS Partnerships
Here are some of the successful partnerships that State Councils have had
with the Department of Health and Human Services. For more information, please
contact Rick Wetherill in the
Office of Community Development.
The Alaska Rural Development Council has partnered with the Applied Science Laboratory of the University of Alaska-Anchorage and the Alaska Telemedicine Project to use telecommunications as a means of providing health care over vast distances. Because rural Alaska does not have landlines, rural communities must rely on satellite transmissions that require the use of narrow bandwidth telecommunications and information technology. ARDC's connections and credibility within the state's complex rural political arena were instrumental in the state moving forward with the Telemedicine Project. Funded by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the project has developed, deployed, and evaluated the use of telemedicine for otolaryngology (ENT), dermatology, and emergency medical services to 25 villages in remote western Alaska. Through the Council members' efforts, the Alaskan Congressional Delegation recognized the NLM project as a model for creative "public-private" partnership. Beginning in 1999, dedicated funding from the Departments of Defense, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, and Indian Health Services is being leveraged to replicate this successful model to all of Alaska's 235 rural villages and communities.
The Kansas Rural Development Council recently initiated the first primary care contract between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and a local health care provider. This successful effort resulted in a near 60-percent increase in patient load at the facility. Since this initial success, KRDC has helped the VA develop health care contracts in most rural areas in Kansas. These collaborative arrangements create better, more convenient services for rural veterans and stronger local health care facilities with a larger patient base.
Born of a rural summit on service delivery in July 2000, the Coalition for a Maine Initiative on Aging (CMIA) is a collaborative public policy education effort designed to address the aging issue in Maine. Joining the Maine Rural Development Council as founding members of CMIA are the Maine Alzheimer's Association, Maine Area Agencies on Aging, State Planning Office, Maine State Housing Authority, University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy, and Maine Hospital Association. In addition to helping mobilize rural summit participants and organize CMIA, MRDC facilitated coalition discussions to frame the issues and define the project approach. The Council, which provided fundraising support to this effort, also helped design and facilitate the focus group sessions and the policy round table event. MRDC will help draft the policy paper that concludes this effort.
During the 1999 session of the Maryland General Assembly, the FORVM for Rural Maryland succeeded in having language inserted into the "Cigarette Restitution Fund" legislation that authorizes spending some of these funds on primary health care in rural areas. Maryland is slated to receive about $4.9 billion in Master Settlement Agreement (tobacco litigation) funds over the next 25 years, with settlement payouts scheduled to begin in the summer of 2000.
The Massachusetts Rural Development Council co-hosted its 2nd Annual Rural Health Summit, "Enhancing Opportunities for Massachusetts Rural Communities," in August 2001 in Auburn, Massachusetts. The summit allowed over 120 attendees to learn more about telehealth, the focus of this year's event. Under a contract for service by the Office of Rural Health, MRDC collaborated with several partners in co-hosting and organizing this highly successful event. Partners included the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, State Office of Rural Health, Massachusetts Hospital Association, Massachusetts Rural Health Network of the New England Rural Health Network, USDA-Rural Development, and Verizon Communications. Although considered a technology and health state, many areas of Massachusetts need to learn about the possibilities available through tapping telemedicine and telehealth opportunities. The summit provided this information, while also educating professionals and caregivers about the potential pitfalls that can complicate use of newer technologies. Attendees also were able to hear firsthand of telehealth/telemedicine success stories from other New England states.
In February 2001, the Massachusetts Rural Development Council co-hosted the Rural/Urban Institute in Auburn, Massachusetts. The City of Worcester and the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development joined the Council as co-hosts of this event. Providing generous support were Verizon, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and Nebraska's Heartland Center for Leadership Development, a nationally recognized expert in rural community development. This event focused on issues common to urban and rural communities and ways to pursue policy and service delivery changes in both communities. The more than 60 attendees included representatives from numerous local, state, federal, and community service agencies. USDA-RD and HHS were particularly well represented. The morning session began with an address by Congressman McGovern, who stressed the importance of the issues addressed at this event and how they relate to issues Congress faces. Working sessions covered a range of topics, including housing affordability and availability; oral health issues, such as accessibility to oral health care practitioners; business and entrepreneurial opportunities and obstacles; and juvenile justice issues. As a result of this productive one-day event, working committees will be formed to address adjusting policy and funding streams on the state and national levels and to improve the lives of both rural and urban populations.
Duluth, Minnesota was host to the Joint International Summit on Community and Rural Development in July 2001. Over 1,200 community and rural leaders from Minnesota, 47 states, and 15 countries gathered to discuss development activities to strengthen their communities. Minnesota Rural Partners led and coordinated this event, which combined MRP's Minnesota Rural Summit, the annual meeting of the International Community Development Society, and the annual leadership conference of the National Rural Development Partnership (NRDP). The summit offered over 60 concurrent sessions, 7 mobile workshops, 9 professional development sessions, 80 learning stations, presentations by Governor Jesse Ventura, a poverty panel of national experts, and a policy discussion that included representation from the European Union, the State of Minnesota, and the National Association of Counties. HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson concluded the summit with the announcement of HHS's major Rural Initiative, which is evaluating the rural aspects of every program within HHS. The Minnesota Department of Trade and Economic Development, the University of Minnesota, and the Northwest Area Foundation -- the summit's major sponsors -- provided financial and programmatic support and representation from state, education, and foundation communities. USDA-RD, EDA, and HUD employees were heavily involved in the conception, planning and implementation of the summit. Each of these agencies also provided money to reduce registration fees and provide scholarships for some participants.
The Mississippi State Rural Development Council held several educational forums with state legislators; community leaders; and federal, state, and local leaders to gain support for the Wheels to Work program. The purpose of this program is to provide individuals transitioning from welfare rolls with a car that may be used for travel to and from employment and other travel necessary for the family. MSRDC agreed to perform the initial staging of the program before turning it over to a quasi-federal/state team that will form a 501c3. Key partners in this initiative include state legislators, (Health and Welfare Chair and Committee Members), Mississippi Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Medicaid, Mississippi Department of Transportation, Mississippi RC&D Councils, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Services, and GSA.
In addition to helping fund a portion of the Rural Health Summit, held May 7-8, 2000, the Missouri Rural Outreach Council also identified key individuals to participate. The Summit, called "Focusing on the Future" brought together a select group of community leaders and health advocates from across Missouri to identify the most critical rural health issues in the state and to discuss ways they could collaborate to address these issues. It also helped to reestablish the Missouri Rural Health Association (MRHA), which had been inactive for a period of time, determine its leadership, and set its agenda for the coming year.
The New Mexico Rural Development Response Council, working with New Mexico Health Resources, the New Mexico Primary Care Association, and the State Department of Health, sponsored a three-day conference and training session on the techniques and practices of recruiting and retaining health care professionals in rural communities. When NMRDRC discovered that such training had not taken place around the state for over seven years, the Council proposed to undertake such a conference. NMRDRC, the conference partners, and several others came together to formulate logistics, develop the agenda, and find sponsorship funding. Several nationally recognized figures on the subject for comprehensive training came to the conference to discuss methods to address the problem that exists across rural America, and particularly in New Mexico, of finding and keeping a nurse or doctor. Nearly 50 people from around the state, representing about 25 rural communities, attended the conference. Since the training was transportable, the attendees were able to take the lessons learned back to their community hospital boards as well as to those interested in the economic development aspects of healthcare.
On February 26, 1999, the Oregon Rural Development Council sponsored its first topical forum for 1999, the Rural Health Issues Forum, in La Grande, Oregon. Rural health presentations at the forum confirmed the essential role that rural health plays in the economic well-being and health of rural communities. Presenters cited the findings of the Office of Rural Health's Oregon Hospital Report, 1994-96, which noted that most rural areas have restricted access to health care and face three challenges in establishing and maintaining health care systems: shortages of health care practitioners, fragile rural hospitals, and lack of community resources. As a follow-up to this forum, ORDC published a seven-page Summary of Findings, which includes an overview, summaries of each presentation, and the presenters' eight recommendations, the first of which called for a continuation of the rural health practitioners' tax credit, at risk of being discontinued in the 1999 legislative session. The Council distributed the published findings to each member of health-related legislative committees. As a result of ORDC's targeted effort to educate legislators through these findings and a stronger team effort among health care advocates, the tax credit was continued.
The Pennsylvania Rural Development Council was instrumental in promoting the Medical Rural Hospital Flexibility Program, also known as the Critical Access Hospital Program, which was established by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. With nearly 3.7 million rural residents, Pennsylvania has the largest population living in rural areas of any state in the nation. The intent of the program was to address some of the important issues faced by rural communities in the state. PRDC assisted in acquiring a grant from the federal Office of Rural Health Policy to implement a program that would preserve access to primary care and emergency services, provide health care services that meet community needs, and help assume the financial viability of program participants through improved reimbursement and different operating requirements. Funds from the grant are administered by the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health, which will develop a state plan for implementing the program in conjunction with the PRDC, the Governor's Policy Office, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, the Hospital and Health Systems Association, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and other state agencies.
Responding to the need for health insurance coverage for some Pennsylvania children, the Children's Health Outreach Project collaborated with the Pennsylvania Rural Development Council and the state's Departments of Public Welfare, Health, and Insurance on a mini-grant initiative. The purpose of the mini-grants is to support development of outreach efforts to (1) increase access to health care coverage by Pennsylvania's low-income children and families, (2) promote preventative care and good health planning, and (3) lower the incidence of uncompensated care. Project collaborators held a kick-off event and six additional meetings in 2000 to promote the mini-grants initiative throughout Pennsylvania. Meeting invitees included representatives from the health care community, legislative offices, health and human services agencies (including the Dept. of Health and Human Services), and community-based organizations with an interest in children's health. Grant applications had to include a description of a plan to reach low-income families through community partnering efforts with the message that children's health care coverage is important and accessible. As a result of this initiative, the project funded about 20 communities with grants of up to $50,000 each. Thanks to PRDC's efforts in promoting the program to Pennsylvania's rural communities, 9 grants serving 12 rural communities were awarded, with a total value of $358,824.
The Utah Rural Development Council was instrumental in convening a group of health care providers and others interested in providing health care for Utah's rural residents to organize the Utah Rural Health Association and to establish the association as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. The purpose was to organize a rural health association that could collectively speak to the health needs of rural Utahns by identifying needs and delivering health care services. In addition to conducting the meetings, the Council agreed to provide some staff and to perform the functions of treasurer to this fledgling organization.
The West Virginia Rural Development Council provides staff support to the West Virginia Welfare Reform Coalition, which was created to ensure the successful implementation of welfare reform. WVRDC Executive Director Joe Barker was honored recently by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) as the 1998 Welfare-to-Work Associate of the Year in West Virginia for his chairmanship of the coalition. Of further note, the coalition completed a study in February 1999 of the effects of West Virginia's welfare policies on families in the state.
