Rural Provider Leadership Summit Findings

With the support of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), the National Rural Health Resource Center (The Center) hosted a Rural Provider Leadership Summit in Bloomington, Minnesota on May 23 – 24, 2016. The purpose of the Summit was to identify strategies for rural provider engagement in transitioning to value-based reimbursement systems. The Summit participants included representatives of critical access hospitals, rural accountable care organizations (ACOs), physicians, state Flex Programs, state offices of rural health (SORHs), universities, quality and rural health network leaders. The panel also included representatives from FORHP, a rural foundation, emergency medical services and community paramedics.

A report with the findings of the Summit has been developed to assist rural hospital leaders in engaging rural health providers in the transition to value-based purchasing and population health. This report is designed to help rural hospitals leaders and providers during the transition.

First, the report describes issues and opportunities related to engaging rural providers in value models. Second, it provides key strategies that rural hospitals may deploy to overcome challenges and engage providers in value-based models and enhance medical staff collaboration. Third, the report highlights success stories and lessons learned that were shared by the panelists during the summit. The report is also intended to assist state Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Programs and SORHs by offering timely information to develop tools and educational resources that support their hospitals and networks as they transition to population health.