Rural Hospital Care Coordination and Population Health Management Summit Report and Findings

With the support of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), the National Rural Health Resource Center (The Center) hosted the 2019 Rural Care Coordination and Population Health Management Summit to consider how community care coordination plays a key role in assisting health care leaders in preparing for population health management.

The purpose of the Summit was to identify key actions that leaders and providers should take to further develop a local infrastructure that they can deliver and manage population health in the future. The Summit findings build on current transitions of care and community care coordination best practices, identifies next steps leaders and providers should undertake to support local infrastructure for better care delivery, shares opportunities for hospitals and community partners to manage population health in the future, and explains the potential financial and operational impact of the new care delivery system on the hospital.

Summit Report and Findings

The Summit Report will assist rural hospitals, clinics and network leaders in considering key actions that they can undertake to incorporate community care coordination planning as a strategy to help position the organization for population health.

The report is also intended to assist state Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Programs and state offices of rural health (SORH) by offering timely information to help them develop tools and educational resources that support hospitals and networks in the transition to value-based payment models.

This 2019 Summit Report builds upon the knowledge gained from previously convened summit meetings with nationally recognized subject matter experts, which includes 2016 Financial Leadership and Rural Provider Engagement Summits, the 2017 Value-Based Strategic Summit and 2018 Rural Hospital and Clinic Financial Summit.

Rural Hospital Guide to Improving Care Management

The Rural Hospital Guide to Improving Care Management provides rural hospital executive and management teams with generally accepted best practice concepts related to care management. Explore opportunities to improve performance within the hospital setting through the transition from traditional fee-for-service reimbursement to a value-based, population-health-focused reimbursement environment.

Rural hospitals should use this guide to determine how to most effectively staff care management and identify opportunities to improve clinical and financial outcomes. State rural health partners may also benefit from this guide, as it assists them to ask the right questions when meeting with hospital leadership.

Watch the Short Video Featuring Summit Panelist Interviews

This project is/was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UB1RH24206, Information Services to Rural Hospital Flexibility Program Grantees, $1,100,000 (0% financed with nongovernmental sources). This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.