Rural Health
Research Gateway

Beth Virnig, PhD

Completed Projects - (1)

  • National Study of Home Health Access in Rural America
    This project will develop home health care service areas that will allow for the measurement of access to home health care for rural Medicare beneficiaries who die of cancer, and recommend options for increasing access to home health care in underserved rural areas.
    Research center: FORHP-funded Individual Grantees
    Topics: Cancer, Health services, Home health, Hospice and palliative care, Medicare

Publications - (3)

2005

  • Providing Hospice Care in Rural Areas: Challenges and Strategies to Address Them
    Journal Article
    University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
    Date: 2005

    Hospices in rural settings face challenges in the provision of hospice care as a result of their location and the size of their service area population. To ascertain the challenges that hospices face in serving rural communities, researchers conducted in-depth case studies of four different models of hospice care in rural areas. The authors describe strategies used by the case study hospices and recommend policies that could increase access to hospice care for rural Medicare beneficiaries and other rural residents. National initiatives to improve end-of-life care need to consider the special challenges faced by rural hospices.

2004

  • Do Rural Elders Have Limited Access to Medicare Hospice Services?
    Journal Article
    University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center, Upper Midwest Rural Health Research Center
    Date: 05/2004
    Examines whether there are urban-rural differences in use of the Medicare hospice benefit before death and whether those differences suggest that there is a problem with access to hospice care for rural Medicare beneficiaries.

2002