The State Office of Rural Health (SORH) works to improve access to health care in rural and underserved areas and to reduce health status disparities.
Objectives
- Empower communities to strengthen and maintain the best possible health care using existing resources.
- Provide up-to-date health systems information and technical assistance.
- Build strong partnerships to meet local and regional needs.
- Provide incentives to local areas to implement integrated service delivery systems.
- Be the single point of contact for all regional issues related to heath care.
Facts
- Rural Georgians are less healthy than those living in urban areas
- Rural Georgians are more likely to be under-insured or uninsured
- Rural Georgians are more likely to suffer from heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer
SORH provides funding for institutional framework that lnks small rural communities with State & Federal resources to help develop long-term solutions to rural health problems.
ER Diversion Grant Program
This program identifies and selects hospitals that presently have co-located or offsite primary care practices/sites that will serve as points of care for patients presenting to emergency departments for non-emergent services or that will establish a new primary care site for that purpose. This program will improve health status, lower cost through appropriate utilization and establish accountability for access and quality. The ER Diversion program will provide successful models of a health care system that provides access to primary, emergency and acute care that are appropriate and accessible to the consumer and can be replicated throughout Georgia and the nation.
Overview
The Indigent Care Trust Fund (ICTF) was established in 1990 to expand Medicaid eligibility and services, support rural and other health care providers, primarily hospitals, which serve the medically indigent, and fund primary health care programs for medically indigent Georgians. The ICTF is an umbrella program which contains the Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) program, nursing home provider fees, Care Management Organization (CMO) Quality Assessment Fees; Breast Cancer Tag Fees, ambulance rates and other uninsured/indigent initiatives. With ICTF funding, even uninsured people who do not qualify for Medicaid may receive health care from participating hospitals.
Program Description
DSH is a federal program that works to increase health care access for the poor. Hospitals that treat a disproportionate number of Medicaid and other indigent patients qualify for DSH payments through the Medicaid program based on the hospital’s estimated uncompensated cost of services to the uninsured. DSH represents the largest component of ICTF payments distributed through Georgia Medicaid.
Georgia statute requires Nursing Home provider fees remitted to the ICTF to be matched with federal Medicaid funds and made available for the provision of support to nursing homes that disproportionately serve the medically indigent. Likewise, Georgia statute requires CMO quality assessment fees to be remitted to the ICTF and to be matched with federal Medicaid funds
and made available to support Medicaid benefit payments.
Proceeds from the sale of breast cancer license tags are deposited into the ICTF and are to be used to fund cancer screening and treatment related programs for those persons who are medically indigent and may have breast cancer. Such programs may include education, breast cancer screening, grants-in-aid to breast cancer victims, pharmacy assistance programs for breast cancer victims, and other projects to encourage public support for the special license plate and the activities which it funds.
Funding Indigent Care Trust Fund
Programs of the ICTF are funded through appropriated state funds; voluntary intergovernmental transfers from participating public hospitals; nursing home provider fees; CMO quality assessment fees; Breast
Cancer tag revenues; Certificate of Need penalties; ambulance licensure fees. Georgia statute requires
that ICTF contributions be matched with federal funds or any other funds from a public source or charitable organization
For more information contact:
| Charles F. Owens Executive Director Telephone: (229) 401-3093 email: cowens@dch.ga.gov |
Tony L. Brown Deputy Director Telephone: (229) 401-3086 email: tbrown@dch.ga.gov |
