The Nebraska Rural Health Association is the only Nebraska organization dedicated exclusively to improving the access to quality healthcare in rural Nebraska. Our mission is to bring together diverse interests and provide a unified voice to promote and enhance the quality of rural health through leadership, advocacy, coalition building, education, and communications. There are groups representing hospitals, physicians, community health centers, and individual health professions, but no organization has a specific commitment to the Rural Health Clinics Program.
The Rural Health Clinics Program (RHC Program) was developed in response to the unmet needs of Medicare and Medicaid recipients in underserved areas of rural America. In the RHC Program, the federal government crafted a plan to encourage physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and physicians to practice together in rural areas. Today, rural health clinics are an integral part of the Nebraska health care delivery system, with over 114 federally certified rural health clinics providing primary care services for rural Nebraskans.
In recent years, the Federal government has attempted some misguided, budget-cutting strategies which would have ignored the unique needs and dynamics of underserved, rural populations in America and the rural health clinics that serve them.
With NeRHAs unique and specific focus on the rural health, the Nebraska Rural Health Clinics-Constituency Section (NRHC-CS) is being developed to serve as an important advocate for the needs of rural health clinics in the State of Nebraska. It will be a vital link between Nebraska rural health clinics and federal legislators and regulators as well as advocating on dozens of other issues of interest to rural health clinics.
