Rural Health Care Workforce
Rural residents in many parts of the United States have faced chronic and sometimes severe shortages of primary care providers for decades. Maintaining an adequate supply of primary care providers has been, and remains, one of the key challenges in rural health care. Nearly 70% of rural, or partially rural, counties are Health Professional Shortage Areas, and close to one in ten counties have no physicians at all. With far fewer providers per capita, the maldistribution of health care professionals between rural and urban areas results in unequal access to care. We encourage you to utilize the following advocacy materials when advocating for improving the rural healthcare workforce.
- Rural workforce recruitment and retention factors - 2025
- Preventing violence against rural health care workers - 2025
- Addressing the national rural health care worker shortage with a focus on kindergarten through 12th grade educational strategies - 2024
- How Work Support Programs Improve Health and Stimulate Rural Economies - 2023
- Health care’s role in rural economic development: Addressing health workforce needs - 2023
- Retaining Rural Health Care Professionals: Strategies to Reduce Burnout - 2023
- Rural track program funding: An erosion in definitions of rural places requires new action - 2022
- Toward a Sustainable and Diversified Rural Health Workforce - 2022
- Rural EMS Workforce
- CMS Request for Information on New Residency Programs - 2024
- Senate Finance GME Policy Proposal - 2024
- Comments on FY 2025 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System - 2024
- Letter to HRSA on REHs and National Health Service Corps - 2023
- Letter to Senate on Bipartisan Primary Care and Health Workforce Act - 2023
- Senate Request for Information on the drivers of workforce shortages - 2023
- Letter to CMS on GME residency slot distribution - 2023
- Comments on CMS' Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities proposed rule - 2023
- Letter to HHS on HPSAs proposed for withdrawal - 2022
- Letter to HRSA Regarding HPSAs - 2022
- Letter to U.S. Secretary of State on immigrant visas for registered nurses - 2021
- Comments on HRSA Health Professional Shortage Area score factors - 2020
- Medicare scope of practice information pursuant to the President’s executive order - 2020