The Flex Monitoring Team has released a new policy brief, Evaluating State Flex Program Population Health Activities.
The Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Program funds initiatives to improve the health of rural communities under Program Area 3: Population Health Improvement. This brief: (a) provides an overview of the expectations for Program Area 3; (b) summarizes State Flex Program (SFP) initiatives under this Program Area; (c) describes promising population health strategies implemented by SFPs; and (d) discusses outcome measurement issues for population health. It also describes a pathway to connect Flex Program population health efforts to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy Rural Hometown Initiative (HRHI), a five-year multi-program effort to address the factors driving rural disparities in heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury, chronic lower respiratory disease, and stroke.
A companion brief, An Inventory of State Flex Program Population Health Initiatives for Fiscal Years 2019-2023, provides a detailed description of population health initiatives proposed by the 45 SFPs.