The Effects of Managed Care on Rural Health Care

Managed care combines the delivery and financing of health care into one system, according to the Rural Information Center of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It has become more widespread as a response to rapidly increasing costs. Although rural areas lack the many competing plans and large populations that have led to competition among managed care plans in urban areas, rural areas are still attempting to control costs through managed care.

Public Health Departments

• According to the Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Medicaid managed care in rural areas has led Medicaid recipients to use more private sector services and public health departments to lose revenue.

Local Control

• According to the "Western Journal of Medicine," a potential adverse impact of managed care on rural areas is the loss of local control of health care delivery. This is because most managed care organizations that operate in rural areas are headquartered in metropolitan areas.

Uninsured

• Since these organizations are also metropolitan in outlook, the fact that they bring providers to rural areas, may do the uninsured very little good since the managed care organizations may have very little empathy or understanding of rural areas.