Rural Health Network Development Planning Program

The Rural Health Network Development Planning Program supports the planning and development of rural integrated health care networks with specific focus on collaboration of entities to establish or improve local capacity and care coordination in underserved communities. Specifically, the program uses the concept of developing networks as a strategy for linking rural health care network participants together to achieve greater collective capacity to overcome local challenges, expand access and improve the quality of care in the rural communities these organizations serve. The program helps network participants work together on three legislative aims:

• Achieve efficiencies.

• Expand access to, coordinate, and improve the quality of basic health care services and associated health outcomes.

• Strengthen the rural health care system as a whole.

The intent is that rural health networks will do the following:

• Expand access to care.

• Increase the use of health information technology.

• Explore alternative health care delivery models.

• Continue to achieve quality health care across the continuum of care.