ABSTRACT
Background Rural Safety Net Providers Access to primary health care in the US is aected by an individual’s nancial ability to pay for care, principally measured by insurance, and by the availability
of a practitioner to provide services. Access in many rural counties is challenged at both the individual and the facility level: rural areas have proportionately more poor and uninsured persons than urban areas, and are served by fewer health care providers. [1,2] A number of urban counties are similarly at risk. [3] In both rural and urban settings, safety net facilities can have marked eects on population health. Two principal types of federally designated safety net facilities serve these areas: federally qualied community health centers (CHCs) and rural health clinics (RHCs). CHCs and RHCs are located in counties with demonstrated high need for care among at risk populations, and those that have been designated as rural, respectively.
