Rural Health

Rural America faces a unique combination of factors that create disparities in health care not found in urban areas. Economic factors, cultural and social differences, educational shortcomings, lack of recognition by legislators and the sheer isolation of living in remote areas all conspire to impede rural Americans in their struggle to lead a healthy life. The integrated healthcare features of the CSI Managed Health System (MHS) uniquely positions easily accessible health assessment tools, early symptom detection, disease management, and wellness education in rural communities.

The CSI rural health medical testing kiosk features non-invasive testing, including patented blood pressure monitoring, heart rate, weight, oxygen, temperature, diabetic monitoring and more. It performs a health risk appraisal and establishes a personal health record for individuals, including complete medical history storage capability. The telehealth function provides a virtual "house call" with direct connectivity to a Board Certified Physician with review of health symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and prescriptions if needed.

• Only about ten percent of physicians practice in rural America despite the fact that nearly one-fourth of the population lives in these areas. **
• Rural residents are less likely to have employer-provided health care coverage or prescription drug coverage, and the rural poor are less likely to be covered by Medicaid benefits than their urban counterparts. **
• Rural residents tend to be poorer. On the average, per capita income is $7,417 lower than in urban areas, and rural Americans are more likely to live below the poverty level. The disparity in incomes is even greater for minorities living in rural areas. Nearly 24% of rural children live in poverty. ** 
• There are 2,157 Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA’s) in rural and frontier areas of all states and US territories compared to 910 in urban areas.**
• Cerebrovascular disease was reportedly 1.45 higher in non-Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) than in MSAs.**
• Hypertension was also higher in rural than urban areas (101.3 per 1,000 individuals in MSAs and 128.8 per 1,000 individuals in non-MSAs.)**
• Medicare payments to rural hospitals and physicians are dramatically less than those to their urban counterparts for equivalent services. This correlates closely with the fact that more than 470 rural hospitals have closed in the past 25 years. **
• Rural residents have greater transportation difficulties reaching health care providers, often traveling great distances to reach a doctor or hospital. **

Source:
**Rural Healthy People 2010—"Healthy People 2010: A Companion Document for Rural Areas," is a project funded with grant support from the federal Office of Rural Health Policy. The full document is available for download at the following site: http://www.srph.tamhsc.edu/centers/rhp2010/