WASHINGTON -- Executive Vice President Missy Koppelman, Director of the Public Health Research Department, announced today that the Health Resources and Services Administration, Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, has awarded NORC a grant to conduct a Targeted Rural Health Research project.

With this grant, NORC will conduct a study entitled "How is the Economic Downturn Impacting Rural Health Clinics?" This study will be national in scope and will incorporate primary and secondary data. The Rural Health Clinics will be the focus area for this study, and NORC will focus on the changes these clinics are experiencing in financing (as it pertains to payer mix, uncompensated care, and medical debt) and shifts in the utilization of care during this economic downturn.

"The effects of the economic downturn are widespread and important to rural health clinics across the U.S.  Policymakers at all levels will need to understand the challenges these clinics are facing in order to effectively provide primary care to underserved rural populations," said senior research scientist Alana Knudson, PhD, who will direct the study at NORC.

Methodologies will include literature reviews, key informant interviews, and a survey of rural health clinics. Work on the Study already is underway and is expected to continue through early 2011.