Delivery System Reform and Implications for Rural Communities

Editorial Note: At its September, 2015 meeting in Mahnomen, Minnesota, the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services examined the changing nature of the health care system in the United States and how rural providers can be included in these changes (known as Delivery System Reform (DSR)) without undermining access to quality health services. During the meeting the Committee met with health care providers in Fergus Falls and Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, along with hearing from representatives of the State government, a Medicaid Accountable Care Organization (ACO) and the CEO of a Quality Improvement Organization (QIO). Despite the differences between urban and rural health care providers, rural providers and patients can benefit from the greater efficiencies, different incentives and improved quality of care that the move to DSR requires.