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 News and Information
August 6, 2008 - Arizona Critical Access Hospital 2008 Board of Trustee Training (Click here for Details)
August 4-5, 2008 - 35th Annual Arizona Rural Health Conference in Flagstaff, Arizona.
July 7th, 2008 - Arizona Critical Access Hospital Wickenburg Summit Reunion in Wickenburg, Arizona. (Click Here for Details)
June 13, 2008 - Three new publications on EMS from the North Carolina Rural Health Research & Policy Analysis Center. (Click Here for Details)
Coming Soon!
New Data Resource Now Available!
For links to important Critical Access Hospital federal regulations, click on Hospital Resources above.
The VISION...
The vision of the Arizona Critical Access Hospital Program is to sustain Arizona’s rural health infrastructure by supporting activities for critical access hospitals (CAHs) and CAH-eligible hospitals that contribute toward quality improvement, patient safety, performance improvement, stabilization of their financial profiles, and promotion of their operations as the hub of a collaborative delivery system in their communities. By strengthening and developing CAH personnel capacity we will increase staff satisfaction and staff retention, and simultaneously improve performance and quality of care.
Our state partner organizations include the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association (AHHA), Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG/QIO), Arizona Department of Health Services, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS/the Medicaid system),, Arizona Association of Community Health Centers, and the CEO’s of all critical access hospitals.
Arizona, like other western states, faces unique challenges in assuring access to quality health care for its rural residents: a permeable border with Mexico and a burgeoning problem of uncompensated care for the hospitals that serve this population; a large number of American Indian Nations, whose tribal members live in some of the most remote and isolated areas of the state; geographical terrain that ranges from the floor of the Grand Canyon to the snow-covered White Mountains in the north; from farmlands to barren desert in the south; rural patient populations ranging from farmworkers to tourists, from Navajo elders to young mothers in need of obstetric care. Arizona has relatively few small rural hospitals serving such a diverse population in such varied regions of the state.
As part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Congress created the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program to protect and stabilize the nation's fragile rural health care infrastructure by creating a new category of rural hospitals -- critical access hospitals -- and offering them revenue enhancements through cost-based reimbursement for services to Medicare patients.
The Rural Health Office administers Arizona's Rural Hospital Flexibility Program, guided by key state stakeholders through the statewide Flex Leadership Group (FLG). Thirteen of Arizona's eligible rural hospitals, including Indian Health Service and tribally-owned hospitals, are currently designated critical access hospitals.
Community Partnerships:
A Study of the Impact of Arizona Rural Health Programs
(1991-2004)
Click here to download.
Arizona Rural Health Resource Manual
An outstanding guide to resources for clinics, hospitals,
advocates, and any others with rural health interests.
Click here to download.
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