New Grant to Improve Access to Virtual Care at Rural Hospital Facilities

A grant from Multiplan Corporation has been given to two rural hospitals, who both intend to use the money to increase access to virtual treatment. MultiPlan works with providers to offer flexible provider networks to a variety of payers while also assisting healthcare payers in administering their health plans cost-effectively. Since 1995, the business has provided a grant to aid with rural healthcare. The MultiPlan Rural Health Grant is given to grantees, and it is used to initiate and grow projects such as screenings, education, and service provision. The 2022 Multiplan Rural Health Grant, worth $41,000, was given to two facilities. The recipients of the grants are Cheyenne County Hospital in St. Francis, Kansas, and Cimarron Memorial Hospital in Boise City, Oklahoma. According to a news release from Cimmarron Memorial Hospital in Oklahoma, which serves a neighborhood of 2,300 people spread across 1,800 square miles, many patients have trouble getting to the hospital. The hospital intends to build a mobile telehealth unit using the MultiPlan Rural Health Grant to provide healthcare services to county people living in remote areas. According to a news release, Cheyenne County Hospital will utilize the new funding to buy tablets and increase internet connection in order to deliver behavioral health treatments in the remote population it serves in Northwest Kansas, where it is the only hospital within a 50-mile radius. The hospital and the county health department worked together to provide elderly community members with behavioral health care during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a similar vein, federal funds made available in November 2022 assisted Avera Health in starting up telehealth training activities. The first grant Avera was awarded was for a three-year Rural Public Health Workforce Training Program that offered telehealth, health information technology, and virtual care services as cross-training opportunities. The second award was a component of the Registered Nurse Training Program for Nurse Education, Practice, Quality, and Retention. Avera said that it would sponsor a programme to educate nurses on cultural sensitivity, social determinants of health, and health literacy in order to equip them to work in rural acute-care critical access hospitals. In October 2022, the federal Health Resources and Services Administration awarded Avera Health another grant with the goal of expanding rural healthcare access while enhancing maternal care outcomes.