A new set of Medicaid rules has the potential to help states address the dangerous shortage of physicians outside urban and suburban areas, according to Governing.
Here are four takeaways:
1. States must now set "maximum time and distance" standards to ensure there are enough physicians in the right places. What the maximum time and distance will be is left up to the individual states to decide.
2. Twenty-one percent of rural residents are on Medicaid, compared with 16 percent of residents in urban areas, but only 10 percent of physicians are located in rural areas.
3. Maggie Elehwany, government affairs and policy vice president for the National Rural Health Association, said states simply setting high time and distance maximums won't ensure or improve access to care.
4. Alaska and Missouri are among the states that have already made attempts to address the physician shortage in rural areas. Alaska works with the state university to disperse mental health providers in rural areas, and Missouri lets medical school graduates practice in rural areas without completing a residency.