Rural FP Community

AAFP's community for family physicians, health care providers and others who serve the nation's rural families.

AAFP Rural FP Blog

Read and comment on blog posts from peer rural family physicians.

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Share the News with Your Community

Now you can post informative, timely, rural health-related articles to the Rural Online Community. Share national, regional or local articles with other rural family physicians in the Community.

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Rural Assistance Center RSS Feed -- Access news and information compiled by the Rural Assistance Center.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

CMS QPU, January 8 - 26, 2010 (3-page PDF file; About PDFs)
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; January 28, 2010

Publications Available from CMS

The following rural health publications are now available from the Medicare Learning Network:

The revised Rural Health Bookmark (April 2009; 2-page PDF file; About PDFs), which provides information about educational resources that are available to the rural health community, is available in downloadable and print formats.

The Rural Health Fact Sheet Series (Summer 2009), which provides information about rural facility types and coverage and payment policies, is available in CD-Rom format. The following publications are included in the fact sheet series:

Critical Access Hospital (4-page PDF file; About PDFs).
Federally Qualified Health Center (4-page PDF file; About PDFs).
Medicare Dependent Hospital (2-page PDF file; About PDFs).
Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital (4-page PDF file; About PDFs).
Rural Health Clinic (4-page PDF file; About PDFs).
Rural Referral Center (2-page PDF file; About PDFs).
Sole Community Hospital (2-page PDF file; About PDFs).
Swing Bed (2-page PDF file; About PDFs).
Telehealth Services (4-page PDF file; About PDFs).

To place your order for the print version of the Rural Health Bookmark or the Rural Health Fact Sheet Series CD-Rom, go to www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNGenInfo/, scroll down to “Related Links Inside CMS” and select “MLN Product Ordering Page.”

Research News

Read the WWAMI final report: U.S. Rural Physician Workforce: Analysis of Medical School Graduates from 1988-1997 (October 2008) (10-page PDF file; About PDFs).

Profile of a Rural FP: Carla Kakutani, MD

Photo courtesy of California Academy of Family Physicians

Since residency, Dr. Kakutani's version of family medicine has extended beyond her full-spectrum of care in her adopted small town, to serving as president of the California Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP) and chair of their delegation to the California Medical Association, to the lawn on Capitol Hill to fight for her patients' right to quality care. Just don't ask her about hemorrhoids while she is grocery shopping. Read Dr. Kakutani's profile.

Read previous Rural FP Profiles.

Tell us what you want from your Rural Online Community.

Start now to help make this community reflect your needs and preferences as a rural family physician. Take a quick poll to rank the relative importance of various features on your Rural Online Community, or to suggest your own favorites.

Please e-mail your comments or questions to: ruralonlinecommunity@aafp.org.