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Research Products & Journal Articles

Browse the full list of research publications from this Rural Health Research Center.

Products – Freely accessible products include policy briefs, fact sheets, full reports, chartbooks, and interactive data websites.

Journal Articles – Articles in peer-reviewed journals may require a subscription or affiliation with a subscribing library. For these publications, Gateway lists the article citation, a brief summary, a link to additional information and access to the full-text of the article, if available.

2025

  • Medicare Advantage Enrollment Update 2024
    Policy Brief
    Date: 01/2025
    This policy brief continues RUPRI Center's annual update of Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment including the changes in enrollment in types of MA plans, and health policy changes that may have had an impact.

2024

  • Changes in Rural Pharmacy Presence 2023
    Policy Brief
    Date: 08/2024
    This data brief continues the RUPRI Center's series of reports exploring the availability of retail pharmacy services in rural areas of the U.S. It provides information on rural communities that have kept, lost, or gained a retail pharmacy between 2018 and 2023.

2023

2022

2021

  • COVID-19 Cases and Vaccination Rates
    Policy Brief
    Date: 09/2021
    This data brief examines the relationship between vaccination rates, COVID-19 one-week incidence and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan location. Additional information is provided for Census regions and individual states.
  • Medicare Advantage Enrollment Update 2021
    Policy Brief
    Date: 09/2021
    The RUPRI Center's annual update on Medicare Advantage (MA) shows that both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan enrollment has continued to grow for more than 10 years. However, between 2020 and 2021 the rate of growth in nonmetropolitan counties was more than twice as large as that in metropolitan counties.
  • Confirmed COVID-19 Cases, Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Counties
    Date: 08/2021
    This data brief shows the spread of COVID-19 confirmed cases across the U.S., highlighting metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties with confirmed cases of, and deaths from, COVID-19.
  • County-Level 14-Day COVID-19 Case Trajectories
    Date: 08/2021
    Many locations in the U.S. are relaxing their community-level COVID-19 mitigation measures. But one of the key "gating" indicators for doing this is a downward trajectory of new cases during a 14-day period. The rural data brief examines county-level 14-day trajectories for new confirmed COVID-19 cases.
  • COVID-19 Cases and Deaths, Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Counties Over Time (Update)
    Report
    Date: 08/2021
    This data brief compares seven-day moving average COVID-19 incidence and mortality rates between metropolitan, micropolitan, and noncore counties in the U.S. The brief is updated twice a month.
  • Medicare Advantage Enrollment Update 2020
    Policy Brief
    Date: 05/2021
    This annual update on Medicare Advantage (MA) shows that both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan enrollment has continued to grow for more than 10 years. The percent of nonmetropolitan MA enrollees in Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plans has increased every year since 2017. Metropolitan HMO enrollment has decreased every year since 2016.
  • Pharmacy Vaccination Service Availability in Nonmetropolitan Counties
    Policy Brief
    Date: 02/2021
    Pharmacies will play a role in administering the COVID-19 vaccination to the general public. But there are many rural locations in the U.S. where pharmacy resources are limited. This rural data brief examines the availability of pharmacies capable of delivering COVID-19 vaccinations in nonmetropolitan areas.

2020

  • Medicare Advantage Enrollment Update 2019
    Policy Brief
    Date: 10/2020
    The annual update on Medicare Advantage (MA) shows that both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan enrollment has continued to grow for more than 10 years. However, the rate of growth has been higher in nonmetropolitan counties for the past two years. Local Preferred Provider Organization plans account for nearly half of nonmetropolitan MA enrollment.
  • A Comparison of Rural and Urban Specialty Hospitals
    Policy Brief
    Date: 09/2020
    This brief describes key differences between specialty hospitals located in rural versus urban areas.
  • Telepharmacy Rules and Statutes: A 3-Year Update for All 50 States
    Policy Brief
    Date: 07/2020
    This policy brief analyzed administrative rules and legislative statutes governing each state's pharmacy practice. Key features of telepharmacy regulations were investigated for comparative analysis. Twenty-one states currently authorize retail telepharmacy, but between these states the regulatory activity varies considerably.

2019

2017

  • Rural-Urban Variations in Medicare Live Discharge Patterns From Hospice, 2012-2013
    Policy Brief
    Date: 09/2017
    This brief 1) provides an overview of the geographic distribution of "freestanding" (i.e., rather than those co-located in a hospital, home health agency, or skilled nursing facility) rural and urban hospices and, 2) explores live discharge rates for hospices operating in rural versus urban areas.
  • CMS Hospital Quality Star Rating: For 762 Rural Hospitals, No Stars Is the Problem
    Policy Brief
    Date: 06/2017
    The purpose of this brief is to look more closely at the characteristics of rural hospitals with and without CMS Hospital Quality Star Ratings to help inform ongoing discussions about the usefulness of the quality star rating for comparing hospital quality and possible ways to improve the star rating initiative.

2013

2011

2010

  • Rural Health Snapshot 2010
    Date: 08/2010
    The Rural Health Snapshot displays selected indicators of access to healthcare, health behavior/risk factors, and mortality rates, comparing rural to urban residents.

2009

  • Profile of Sole Community Pharmacists' Prescription Sales and Overall Financial Position
    Date: 08/2009
    We conducted a survey of community pharmacists who owned the only retail outlets in their communities. Pharmacist-owners in independent pharmacies located at least 10 miles from the next closest retail pharmacy were interviewed to determine their reliance on prescription sales and to understand their stores' current financial positions.