NRHA Archived Policy Documents
Seven years after being approved, papers or policy briefs automatically undergo a two-part review process. If the Rural Health Congress does not make a decision on the paper or brief within eight years of approval, or if the congress votes to archive a paper, it is no longer considered an official position of NRHA.
If you have any questions about any of these papers or if you are an NRHA member and would like to revisit/update any of these papers, please contact Mason Zeagler.
The advocacy documents listed below were originally developed by NRHA's Government Affairs team:
2019 NRHA advocacy materials
2018 NRHA advocacy materials
- FY18 Government Affairs Report
- FY18 Government Affairs Report one-pager
- Save Rural Hospitals Act sponsor request
- 2018 Rural hospital closures infographic
2017 NRHA advocacy materials
The policy positions listed below were originally adopted by NRHA's Rural Health Congress:
2012 NRHA Policy Papers
- Broadband Access in Rural America, September 2012
- Definition of Primary Care, January 2012
- Definition of Rural, Policy Statement, April 2012:The National Rural Health Association strongly recommends that definitions of rural be specific to the purposes of the programs in which they are used and that these are referred to as programmatic designations and not as definitions. Programs targeting rural communities, rural providers and rural residents do so for particular reasons, and those reasons should be the guidance for selecting the criteria for a programmatic designation (from among various criteria and existing definitions, each with its own statistical validity). This will ensure that a designation is appropriate for a specific program while limiting the possibilities that other unrelated programs adopt a definition that is not created to fit that program.
- Electronic Health Record Implementation and Meaningful Use Adoption in Rural Hospitals and Physician Clinics, January 2012
- Health Care Workforce Distribution and Shortage Issues in Rural America, January 2012
- Medicaid Reform: A Rural Perspective, September 2012
- Principles for Community Paramedicine Programs, September 2012
- Professional Liability Reform, September 2012
- Public Reporting of Hospital Quality in Rural Communities: An Initial Set of Key Issues, January 2012
2011 NRHA Policy Papers
- Deleterious Impacts on Rural Multiracial and Multicultural Populations Related to the Devolution of Welfare Programs, April 2011
- Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) and Telehealth in Critical Access Hospitals, May 2011
- Food and Nutrition, January 2011
- Geographic Restrictions for Medicare Telehealth Reimbursement, May 2011
- Public Health Nursing: Strengthening the Core of Rural Public Health, January 2011
- Rural Health Preparedness, April 2011
2010 NRHA Policy Papers
- Addressing the Health Care Needs in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region, January 2010
- Telemedicine Credentialing, May 2010
- Telemedicine Reimbursement, May 2010
2009 NRHA Policy Papers
- Pharmacy, May 2009
- Under-Insurance among Farm and Ranch Families and Other Small Business People Undermines Benefits of Insurance Coverage, October 2009
Pre-2009 Policy Papers (alpha)
- Access to Automatic External Defibrillation, February 2003
- Access to Health Care for the Uninsured in Rural and Frontier America, May 1999
- American Indian and Alaska Native Health, November 2006
- Antitrust and Rural Health, May 1996
- Community Health Advisor Programs, November 2000
- Comprehensive Quality Improvement in Rural Health Care, October 2007
- Dental Health Professionals in Alaska Rural Communities, Policy Statement, June 2006 :
The National Rural Health Association believes rural communities should have access to the most appropriately trained dental health professionals relative to the size and demographics of the community. In frontier Alaska, tribal programs experience a 25 percent annual vacancy rate and 30 percent annual turnover rate for dentists. Alaska Native children have 2.5 times more dental disease than all U.S. races. Additionally, the geography of Alaska increases the cost of providing dental care, and many villages face economic conditions that make support of a full-time dentist unfeasible. Therefore, NRHA fully endorses the provision of oral health care via dental health aides and therapists in small, frontier communities in Alaska.
- Designation of Frontier Health Professional Shortage Areas, October 2007
- Emergency Medical Services, Paper #13 to the , November 2005
- Facilitating the Use of National Surveys in Rural Health Research, May 1998
- Farm Bill Reauthorization: Implications for the Health of Rural Communities, November 2006
- Federal Medicaid Reform: A Rural Perspective, May 2007; April 2004; May 2003
- Frontier Definition, October 2008
- Funding of Graduate Medical Education, February 1998
- Graduate Medical Education for Rural Practice, May 2008
- Health Insurance Access in Rural America, March 2004
- Health Home, October 2008
- HIV/AIDS in Rural America: Disproportionate Impact on Minority and Multicultural Populations, July 2004 (update of the HIV/AIDS in Rural America policy paper from November 1997)
- Impact of Entitlement Programs on Rural Health, May 1995
- Inclusion of Primary Eye Care Services in the National Health Service Corps, October 2007
- Long-Term Care in Rural America, May 2001
- Medicare Advantage for Rural America?, February 2007
- Meeting Oral Health Care Needs in Rural America, April 2005
- Mental Health in Rural America, May 1999
- National Agenda for Rural Minority Health, May 1999
- National Agenda for Rural Minority Health: Recruitment and Training of Health Professionals, April 2001
- National Agenda for Rural Minority Health: The Need for Responsive Rural Health Delivery Systems, July 2001
- National Agenda for Rural Minority Health: The Need for Standardized Data and Information Systems, April 2001
- National Health Policy Reform: The Rural Perspective, September 1992
- Niche (Limited-Service) Hospital Providers, May 2005
- Nursing, Paper #2, to "The Rural Health Careers Pipeline" series, December 2005
- Pharmacist's Right to Refuse Service, Policy Statement, August 2005:While NRHA respects a pharmacist's right to refuse to fill some prescriptions, these refusals cannot obstruct both a prescribing clinician's authority and the ability of rural patients to access prescribed medications. NRHA supports the American Medical Association resolution of June 20, 2005 and encourages state laws that would allow prescribing clinicians to dispense medication directly to patients when no willing pharmacist is located within 30 miles. (AMA Resolution)
- Primary Eye Care in Rural America, October 2007
- Professional Liability Reform, April 2003
- Public Safety Officer Benefit to Include Ambulance and Air Medical Crews, January 2008
- Quality of Rural Health Care, December 2003
- Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, May 2006
- Reforming the Universal Service Fund, May 2003
- Responsive Rural Health Delivery System, October 2008
- Role of Telemedicine in Rural Health Care, February 1998
- Rural America's Health Care Safety Net Providers, March 2002
- Rural and Frontier Emergency Medical Services Toward the Year 2000, May 1997
- Rural Economic Development, May 2009
- Rural/Frontier Women's Access to Health Services, November 2005
- Rural Graduate Medical Education, June 2003
- Rural Health Clinics, November 2006
- Rural Health Clinics in Rural America, February 1997
- Rural Health Information Technology, February 2006
- Rural Health Preparedness, January 2002
- Rural Health Professions, January 2004
- Rural Physician Recruitment and Retention, November 1998
- Rural Public Health, June 2004
- Rural Veterans: A Special Concern for Rural Health Advocates, February 2007; February 2004
- Strengthening the Role of International Medical Graduates in Providing Access to Health Care for Rural America, March 2003
- Vision for Health Reform Models for America's Rural Communities
- Principles for Community Paramedicine Programs, February 1998