• Current projects funded under a cooperative aggreement with the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP)

• Analysis of Low-Income Subsidy Enrollment into Medicare Part D Plans

The RUPRI Center is analyzing low-income subsidy enrollment into Medicare Part D plans (either standalone or MAPDP) that will show national and state-specific rural enrollment and percent of eligibles enrolled by different classes of counties.

• Analysis of Pharmacy Closures: A Tracking Study

The RUPRI Center is conducting a time-series analysis of closures of independently owned pharmacies in communities at least 10 miles from any other pharmacy since 2004.

• Assistance to Develop a Rural Health Plan for Wyoming

RUPRI Center researchers are providing analytical and process support to the Wyoming Office of Rural Health to develop a state health plan for the Wyoming Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program.

Funder: Wyoming Office of Rural Health
Lead researcher: Keith J. Mueller, PhD , 402.559.5260, kmueller@unmc.edu

• Developing a Blueprint for a Wyoming Health Planning Agency

The RUPRI Center is working with the Subcommittee on Rural Health of the Wyoming Healthcare Commission to prepare a report specifying the structure, process, and function of a new agency designed to implement recommendations from the June 2007 RUPRI Center report, Status and Future of Health Care Delivery in Rural Wyoming.

Funder: Wyoming Healthcare Commission
Lead researcher: Keith J. Mueller, PhD , 402.559.5260, kmueller@unmc.edu

• The Effect of Medicare Part D on Rural Pharmacies That Are the Sole Retail Providers in a Community

Funder: Office of Rural Health Policy
Lead Researcher:  Keith J. Mueller, PhD , 402.559.5260, kmueller@unmc.edu

The effect of Medicare Part D and other issues on rural independent pharmacies that are the sole retail providers in a community has been the focus of a series of collaborative studies conducted by researchers at the RUPRI Center for Rural Policy Analysis and the North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center. Studies conducted in 2006 and 2007 sought to identify the effects of programmatic changes on the financial well being of rural independent pharmacies and generate ideas for strategies that could remediate negative effects. The following reports document these studies’ findings:

The Experience of Sole Community Rural Independent Pharmacies with Medicare Part D: Reports from the Field
Date: 11/2006

One Year In: Sole Community Rural Independent Pharmacies and Medicare Part D (Brief) Date: 10/2007

One Year In: Sole Community Rural Independent Pharmacies and Medicare Part D (Paper) Date: 9/2007

• Implementing a Pilot Study to Beta Test RUPRI Center Recommendations

The RUPRI Center, the Wyoming Healthcare Commission, and providers and community leaders in the Carbon County area are collaborating to develop and implement changes in healthcare delivery and finance consistent with the recommendations of the June 2007 RUPRI Center report, Status and Future of Health Care Delivery in Rural Wyoming.

Funder: Wyoming Healthcare Commission
Lead researcher: Keith J. Mueller, PhD , 402.559.5260, kmueller@unmc.edu