The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is targeting more than 60 million Americans with their new plan to provide rural communities quality and affordable healthcare options. nnCMS unveiled the Rural Health Strategy on Tuesday with the goal of helping millions of Americans across the United States obtain quality healthcare. “Through its implementation and our continued stakeholder engagement, this strategy will enhance the positive impacts CMS policies have on beneficiaries who live in rural areas,” said CMS Administrator, Seema Verma.nnCMS will look to raise state and local stakeholder engagement to make the agency’s policies more effective and curb the “unintended consequences of policy and program implementation” in those communities, the agency said.Through the new strategy, CMS is focused on accomplishing the five goals listed below:n
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- advance telehealth services
- apply a “rural lens” to agency policies
- improve access to care
- empower rural patients to make healthcare decisions
- and leverage partnerships to achieve these objectives
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nSome of the actions CMS plans to take to achieve these five goals are providing technical assistance to ensure providers participate in CMS programs, bolster health technology and infrastructure to improve patient access to health information, and assist state Medicaid agencies to advance rural health strategies to citizens in need.nnThis article was originally posted on healthleadersmedia.com