FINANCING SATELLITE OUTPATIENT CARE IN RURAL HOSPITALS

Providing health care to low income or elderly residents of rural areas remains a serious national health care problem in the United States. This case study evaluates an intervention for primary outpatient care to a particular class of patients – veterans – and shows how it can benefit them. Locating the outpatient clinic in a struggling rural hospital makes an outreach by the urban veterans hospital financially feasible and is profitable for the rural hospital.