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1991.09.10 :  Grants -- Improve Access to Rural Health

Contact:  Sue Bernstein (301) 443-3376
September 10, 1991

        Thirty-eight states will be awarded a total of $1.65
million in grants through a new federal program that seeks to
improve access to health care for rural Americans -- by fostering
state offices of rural health.
        The one-year matching grants will make it possible for 13
states to establish new offices of rural health and permit 25
others to expand existing offices.
        "Many rural communities face medical hardship due to
poverty, shortages of rural health practitioners and financial
deficits in 
hard-pressed hospitals," said HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., 
in announcing the awards. "By establishing offices of rural health,
the states can address these problems in concert with local
communities and health care providers."  
     "Four years ago there were only 12 state offices of rural health
in the nation," said Dr. Robert G. Harmon, administrator for the
Health Resources and Services Administration, which will administer
the grants.  "We're pleased that so many states are interested in an
office of rural health."
     While a wide range of activities can be conducted under the
program to address local needs, the grant requires that each state
office establish an information clearinghouse, provide technical
assistance that will improve local participation in state and federal
programs for rural health and coordinate rural health activities
throughout the state.
     The program was authorized by Congress in 1990 and funded for
the first time this year.  The one-year grants will be administered
by the HRSA Office of Rural Health Policy and average $43,000 per
state with one-third to be matched by the state.
     The 13 new offices of rural health will be in Maine, Vermont,
New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Oklahoma, Minnesota, Colorado and Hawaii.
     The following additional states have won awards to expand their
existing offices:
Texas       Mississippi    Montana   Nevada    North Carolina
Idaho       Arkansas       Iowa      Utah      South Carolina
Missouri    Nebraska       Georgia   Kansas    New Mexico
Wisconsin   South Dakota   Oregon    Illinois  West Virginia
California  North Dakota   Alabama   Arizona   Washington

     HRSA is the lead agency within the U.S. Public Health Service,
HHS, for ensuring that primary care is available to disadvantaged
Americans made vulnerable by poverty, isolation, youth, old age or
other conditions that restrict ready access to medical care.       
                                                                   
                                      
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