Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:44:53 +0000

Are Conrad 30 Waivers available for California this fiscal year (October 2007-September 2008)? 

California, my home state, has availability for seven Conrad 30 positions this fiscal year.  The availability of Conrad 30 waivers this late in the fiscal year is unusual and does reflect the normal demand for California Conrad 30 waivers.  If you will apply for the Conrad 30 waiver before the fiscal year ends, you should be prepared to commence employment before the year ends.

HPSA and MUA designations and treating the Homeless

States do have some discretion in evaluating HPSA and MUA designations and it is important that you determine the state’s methodology in determining whether the health care facility falls within a underserved area at the the very begininnig of the waiver process.  While California’s interpretation of HPSA and MUA designations are not unusual,  some states also allow physicians to work at health care facilities that receive 330 funding from the federal government.  There are three primary HPSA designations that California recognizes as a HPSA location for the Conrad 30 waiver.  The three designations are the following:  Geographic location, Federally Qualified Health Center and by Population Group.  In the great state of Texas, if the Health Care Facility is receiving 330 funding the physician can work for any health care facility that receives this type of funding as long as the physician will be employed to serve the health care facility that receives 330 funding.

What do you do if your J-1 visa will expire before you are able to apply for a waiver? 

If you have expertise in your field the O-1 visa is an excellent option for physicians.  By utilizing this option you also would not be subject to the J-1 two year home residency requirement when you apply for the O-1 visa at the U.S. Embassy (consular processing).

Regulations, Forms & Other Useful Documents

Causes and Consequences of the Rural Uninsured and Underinsured
Author(s): Joe Blankenau, Jon M. Bailey, Julia Hudson
Sponsoring organization: Center for Rural Affairs
Details health insurance coverage in rural America. Includes how rural citizens get insurance coverage and how it differs from urban America, reviews research that explores obstacles in attaining health insurance, addresses the problem of underinsurance, and explores the impact of inadequate financing for health care and its effects on the community. Concludes that health care reform must address the employer-sponsored health insurance system.
Date: 04 / 2009

Challenges and Successes in Reducing Health Disparities: Workshop Summary
Sponsoring organization: Institute of Medicine
Examines the importance of disparities in differences in life expectancy within the United States, the reasons for those differences, and the implications of this information for programs and policy makers.
Date: 2008

Characteristics of Practice Among Rural and Urban General Surgeons in North Carolina
Author(s): Jennifer King, Erin P. Fraher, Thomas C. Ricketts, Anthony Charles
Sponsoring organization: American College of Surgeons Health Policy Research Institute
Study examines variation in the practice patterns of individual general surgeons and how they differ between rural and urban areas of North Carolina.
Journal citation: Annals of Family Medicine
Date: 06 / 2009

Child Health and Well-Being Differ for Metro and Nonmetro Low-Income Households
Author(s): Tracey Farrigan
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
Provides a comparison of the data and statistics regarding the health and well-being of children associated with low levels of household income in both metro and non-metro area.
Date: 11 / 2008

Demographic Trends in Rural and Small Town America
Author(s): Kenneth Johnson
Sponsoring organization: Carsey Institute
Summarizes population redistribution trends in the rural and small town communities that are an important part of the social, economic and political fabric of the country.
Date: 2006

Education and Health
Sponsoring organization: National Poverty Center
Discusses the complicated relationship between education and health that cannot be fully explained by income, the labor market, and family background.
Date: 03 / 2007

Hard Times in the Heartland: Health Care in Rural America
Author(s): Meena Seshamani, Joan Van Nostrand, Jenna Kennedy, Carrie Cochran
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Discusses the current state of health care in rural areas and the need for health care reform. Covers the use and cost of insurance and health care for farm and ranch operators, poverty and unemployment rates, health disparities, and the state of health care provider workforce in rural America.
Date: 03 / 2009

Health Care in Urban and Rural Areas, Combined Years 2004-2006: Requests for Assistance on Health Initiatives: Update of Content in MEPS Chartbook No. 13
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Examines the differences in health care access, use, and expenses between urban and rural areas.
Date: 04 / 2009

Health Disparities: A Rural-Urban Chartbook (Executive Summary)
Author(s): Kevin J. Bennett, Bankole Olatosi, Janice C. Probst
Sponsoring organization: South Carolina Rural Health Research Center
Examines potential disparities among rural populations in health, health behaviors, preventive services and diabetes care.
Date: 06 / 2008

Health Disparities: A Rural-Urban Chartbook (Full-Report)
Author(s): Kevin J. Bennett, Bankole Olatosi, Janice C. Probst
Sponsoring organization: South Carolina Rural Health Research Center
Presents data on health disparities experience by people living in rural America. Some disparities are poorer health status, higher prevalence of obesity, lesser options for activity, and higher mortality rates.
Date: 06 / 2008

Indian Health Service Facts on Indian Health Disparities
Sponsoring organization: Indian Health Service
Provides statistics on Indian health disparities and mortality disparities.
Date: 06 / 2008

National Health Plan Collaborative, Phase One Summary Report: Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities & Improving Quality of Health Care
Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Summarizes and shares what those companies know about disparities in health care delivery. The authors propose key steps to build on that knowledge - collecting additional data, enhancing access for non-English speakers, supporting investment in disparities reduction, and disseminating what member plans have learned.
Date: 11 / 2006

National Healthcare Disparities Report, 2006
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Covers national health care quality and health care access issues. Includes a section on health disparities experienced in rural areas.
Date: 12 / 2006

National Healthcare Disparities Report, 2008
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Includes a national overview of disparities in health care, including quality of care and access to health care.
Date: 03 / 2009

National Plan for Action
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Captures the status of health disparities in our country and proposes 20 strategies for their elimination.
Date: 12 / 2009

Pediatric Surgeons: Subspecialists Increase Faster than Generalists
Author(s): Stephanie Poley,Thomas Ricketts, Daniel Belsky, Katie Gaul
Sponsoring organization: American College of Surgeons Health Policy Research Institute
A fact sheet discussing the expansion of the pediatric surgical workforce with an increase in the number of subspecialists whereas growth in the general pediatric workforce has remained flat. Urban and rural data are compared.
Date: 07 / 2009

Promoting Health Equity: A Resource to Help Communities Address Social Determinants of Health
Author(s): Laura K. Brennan Ramirez, Elizabeth A. Baker, Marilyn Metzler
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
A workbook for community-based organizations seeking to affect the social determinants of health through community-based participatory approaches and nontraditional partnerships. Includes references to rural.
Date: 2008

Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
Sponsoring organization: National Rural Health Association
Issue paper providing an overview of racial and ethnic health disparities in the United States and in rural areas of the U.S. Discusses strategies that can be used to address health disparities and includes policy recommendations.
Date: 05 / 2006

Racial, Socioeconomic, and Rural-Urban Disparities in Obesity-Related Bariatric Surgery
Author(s): Amy E. Wallace, Yinong Young-Xu, David Hartley, William B. Weeks
Sponsoring organization: Muskie School of Public Service Institute for Health Policy
Presents research that examines the difference between rural residents receiving bariatric surgery to combat obesity and their urban counterparts. Describes how Medicare and Medicaid play a role in access to care.
Date: 01 / 2010

Rethinking Human Services: Why Does He Want That Job?
Author(s): Tom Corbett
Sponsoring organization: Rural Assistance Center
Summarizes challenges facing the new presidential administration in relation to unemployment rates, financial stability, and rural America.
Journal citation: Rural Monitor Issue Winter
Date: 02 / 2009

Rural Health Disparities
Sponsoring organization: University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health
Provides a brief overview of rural health disparities in the United States.
Date: 2006

Rural Health Disparities Collaboratives: Benefits, Barriers and Adaptations for the Future
Sponsoring organization: National Rural Health Association
Summary of a focus group conducted December 1, 2005 to provide information to the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) to use in making the Health Disparities Collaboratives (HDC) program more accessible and adaptable to the rural community health center setting.
Date: 2006

Rural Health Disparities: Innovative Programs Offer Health Care Coverage to the Rural Uninsured
Author(s): Candi Helseth
Sponsoring organization: Rural Assistance Center
Features the Farmers’ Health Cooperative of Wisconsin and Franklin Community Health Network’s Contract for Care, who are attempting to meet the special needs of farmers and other self-employed rural people.
Journal citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 02 / 2008

Rural Health Disparities: Providers Overcome Disparities by Improving Health of Rural People
Author(s): Candi Helseth
Sponsoring organization: Rural Assistance Center
Highlights three rural providers in New Mexico, Texas and Maine who are working to decrease health care disparities through innovative programs that offer medical and preventative care to their local populations.
Journal citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 02 / 2008

Rural Healthy People 2010: A Companion Document to Healthy People 2010. Volume 1
Author(s): Larry D. Gamm, Linnae L. Hutchison, Betty J. Dabney, Alicia M. Dorsey (editors)
Sponsoring organization: Southwest Rural Health Research Center
Brief overviews of the top rural health concerns and objectives associated with Healthy People 2010 focus areas, references to key literature about these concerns, and descriptions of models for practice that rural communities can draw upon to achieve key Healthy People 2010 objectives.
Date: 2003

Rural Healthy People 2010: A Companion Document to Healthy People 2010. Volume 2
Author(s): Larry D. Gamm, Linnae L. Hutchison, Betty J. Dabney, Alicia M. Dorsey (editors)
Sponsoring organization: Southwest Rural Health Research Center
Detailed literature reviews and associated references for the top rural health concerns addressed in Vol. 1 of Rural Healthy People 2010.
Date: 2003

Rural Healthy People 2010: A Companion Document to Healthy People 2010. Volume 3
Author(s): Larry D. Gamm, Linnae L. Hutchison (editors)
Sponsoring organization: Southwest Rural Health Research Center
Addresses several rural health concerns and objectives not covered in Volumes 1 and 2 of Rural Healthy People 2010. Includes overviews, literature reviews, and accompanying models for practice for four rural health topics.
Date: 02 / 2005

Rural-Urban Differences in Health Care Access Vary Across Measures
Author(s): Erika Ziller, Jennifer Lenardson
Sponsoring organization: Maine Rural Health Research Center
Reports that rural residents were more likely than urban residents to have a usual source of health care, particularly among the uninsured. Despite this, rural adults were somewhat less likely to receive certain preventive care services compared to urban adults.
Date: 06 / 2009

Surgical Deserts in the US: Places Without Surgeons
Author(s): Daniel Belsky, Thomas Ricketts, Stephanie Poley, Katie Gaul, Erin Fraher, George Sheldon
Sponsoring organization: American College of Surgeons Health Policy Research Institute
A fact sheet describing the current uneven distribution of surgeons across the United States, with more surgeons located in urban centers and fewer in rural communities.
Date: 07 / 2009

Uneven Cost of Rural Health Care
Author(s): Bill Bishop, Julie Ardery
Reports that the Unites States is spending vastly more on health care in some rural areas than in others without any indication that the increased spending results in better health.
Date: 10 / 2009

Use of Preventive Services Among Hispanic Sub-Groups: Does One Size Fit All?
Sponsoring organization: South Carolina Rural Health Research Center
Provides key facts on preventive health services provided to rural Hispanics.
Date: 2007

What's Different about Rural Health Care?
Sponsoring organization: National Rural Health Association
Lists and describes some of the unique factors which Rural Americans face that create disparities in health care not found in urban areas.
Date: 2008